RECAP: Panthers 3, Kraken 2

SUNRISE, Fla. – What’s better than one first goal of the season?

Three first goals of the season.

Gustav Forsling, Matthew Tkachuk, and Nick Cousins each sounded the goal horn for the Florida Panthers in a 3-2 comeback win against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.

“We were good from the start of the second period, pretty much on,” said head coach Paul Maurice. “They were better early in the third, and then we got back at it. So good on them, we got back to playing and just played a heck of a lot harder.”

With the win and going 3-1-0 on their homestand, the Panthers improve to 4-3-0.

After some time of the two teams figuring each other out, Seattle struck first after Jared McCan received a pass from Yanni Gourde and put a backhand in the back of the net at 7:58 of the first period to make it 1-0.

Minutes later, Ryan Lomberg and Cousins put the pressure on in Seattle’s zone with a few good scoring chances that couldn’t quite sneak by Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord.

“I thought our line did a lot of good things,” said Cousins. “We had lots of chances to put the puck in the net, then obviously to get a fortunate enough bounce there in the third capitalized it and makes all those chances that you miss early on in the game not sting as much tonight.”

The Cats found themselves on the penalty kill at 12:30 of the period, but were able to fend off a cluster of Seattle shots with saves from Sergei Bobrovsky and clears from returning captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed the last game against San Jose due to an illness.

In the second period, the two teams traded scoring chances after the Kraken’s defenseman Justin Schultz hit the cross-bar and Daccord made a sprawling save on Florida forward Anton Lundell.

At 7:34, the Kraken capitalized again after Eeli Tolvanen tipped a Jaden Schwartz shot to make it 2-0.

Down a pair of goals, the Cats went on the power play after an interference call on Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak at 8:18 and made the Kraken pay.

With some pressure early in the power play, Lundell found Forsling for a one-timer that cut the deficit in half and make it 2-1 at 8:53.

“It's nice, to be honest,” said the Swedish defenseman. “It gives some confidence, but you know, it's really not my job to score, but it's always nice when you do.”

While fans still celebrated the goal, Tkachuk gave them another reason to cheer eleven seconds later when he brought the Panthers all the way back and made it 2-2 with a goal at 9:04.

The sequence marked just the twelfth time Panthers have scored two goals in a span of eleven seconds or less in franchise history.

As time expired in the middle frame, it looked like the Cats would take the lead after a goal from red-hot scorer Sam Reinhart goal, but after a successful offsides challenge it was overturned.

“I think we just got a little harder on the puck, you know, got it out when we needed,” said Forsling.

After a dominate second period from the Panthers, the Kraken put the pressure on early in the third but were stifled by Bobrovsky.

“In the third period we just shut the door,” said Bobrovsky. “You know, like all of us, not just me, it's all of us, good blocks, you know, good box outs. And we were quick on the puck, we didn't give them much.”

With less than six minutes to go, defenseman Josh Mahura banked a long pass of the back boards from the blue line that took a wild direction that fooled Daccord and left Cousins all alone with an empty net, putting the Cats up 3-2 with the eventual game-winner at 14:08.

THEY SAID IT

“I love playing with the guy. He's a character, that's for sure. He keeps things loose on the bench, but he's also a heck of a player. He's got so much speed and really strong on the puck that he probably doesn't get enough credit for.” -- Nick Cousins on playing with Ryan Lomberg

“I enjoy playing hockey, you know, I don't think much, I just focus on one shot, you know, one moment at a time and just go from there.” -- Sergei Bobrovsky on his play lately

CATS STATS

- Gustav Forsling, Matthew Tkachuk and Nick Cousins each scored their first goal of the year.

- Nick Cousins had a season-high in shots (5) and time on ice (15:19).

- Florida out-shot Seattle 13-3 in the second period.

- Niko Mikkola led all Panthers in shots on goal with seven.

- This was Florida’s first multi-goal comeback win this season.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will hit the road for a three-game road trip with stops in Boston (Monday, October 30), Detroit (Thursday, November 2), and Chicago (Saturday, November 4).

This will be the first time the Cats will face-off against the Bruins since Carter Verhaeghe’s overtime-winner in Game 7 at TD Garden in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.