RECAP: Panthers 5, Devils 3

NEWARK, N.J. – Nick Cousins scored a pair of goals to help the Florida Panthers cap off their road trip with a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Tuesday.

Improving their NHL-best record to 43-16-4, the Panthers, who are now 5-0-1 on the second half of back-to-backs this season, have earned wins in 16 of their last 18 games.

“We have a game plan that we bring, and guys are going out each and every night and executing it,” said Cousins, who recorded the fourth two-goal game of his career. “It’s been a lot of fun coming to the rink. Everyone is pulling on the same rope.”

Breaking the ice shortly after puck drop, Cousins, curling back into the zone on a quick re-entry, took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk, shrugged off a defender and lifted a backhand shot straight past Akira Schmid from the right circle to make it 1-0 at 2:54 of the first period.

Always looking to open the scoring, Florida is 28-1-4 when netting the first goal.

“It’s definitely something we talk about,” Cousins said.

Doubling the lead on the power play, Evan Rodrigues teed up a centering feed from Tkachuk and blasted home a one-timer from the slot to put the Panthers up 2-0 at 6:30. Heating on this trip, "E-Rod" has lit the lamp in two of his last three games.

With the Devils on their own power play, captain Jack Hughes got his team on the board when he fired a shot from beyond the left circle that clipped off Gustav Forsling’s stick in front of the net and knuckled past Anthony Stolarz into the cage to make it 2-1 at 11:45.

After the first 20 minutes, Florida had surrendered just two shots on goal at 5-on-5.

Evening the score in the second period after the Panthers iced the puck just after New Jersey’s power play had expired, Timo Meier barreled toward the net, fought through two defenders, kicked the puck to his stick and tapped it past Stolarz to make it 2-2 at 11:01.

Putting the Panthers back on top less than two minutes later, Eetu Luostarinen made a quick toe-drag at the top of the right circle to create a shooting lane and fired an absolute missel past Schmid’s glove and into the back of the net to make it 3-2 at 12:37.

Standing tall in the second period, Stolarz, a New Jersey native, made 13 saves.

“Just trying to hang onto the lead,” said Stolarz, who finished with 21 saves to improve to personal record to 12-5-2 on the season. “I thought the guys did a great job of limiting their chances.”

Finding the back of the net a second time, Cousins padded the lead for the Panthers in the third period when – after a key faceoff win by Sam Bennett in the offensive zone – he stuck out his stick and tipped in a long shot from Forsling to make it 4-2 at 5:33.

With the secondary assist, Tkachuk recorded his ninth game with at least three points in 2023-24.

Bringing the Devils back within striking distance, Colin Miller, finding the smallest of holes, threaded a shot through traffic from below the blue line to cut Florida’s lead to 4-3 at 11:16.

But that would as close as New Jersey would come to clawing back.

With the Panthers clamping down in the third period much like they did in their 4-2 win over the New York Rangers across the Hudson River at Madison Square Garden just 24 hours earlier, the Devils managed to fire just three shots on goal over the final 4:58 of regulation.

Pouncing on a loose puck after a shot from Aaron Ekblad was blocked, Sam Reinhart, who’s lit the lamp six times in his last four games, added one more goal for good measure when he cashed in on the empty net to make it 5-3 with his 45^th goal of the campaign.

“You just want to find yourself get marginally better as the game goes go on,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “We had a lot of emotion in our game last night. We knew this would be a tough one, and it was. We didn’t look like ourselves, so we weren’t trying to get back to form. We were just trying to get a little bit better.”

With an assist on Reinhart's goal, Ekblad also hit a major milestone.

Notching the 230^th assist of his career, the former first-overall pick surpassed Robert Svehla (229) for the most assists by a defenseman in franchise history.

"It's been a fun 10 years here now in Florida,” said Ekblad, who also holds the franchise record for goals by a D-man (115). “I love it and I have a lot of pride in the jersey. I like to think I show that every single night. It obviously feels great, but there's a lot more to work on."

THEY SAID IT

“That’s what we take pride in, right? Saving a goal is as good as scoring one, in my mind. We get hyped up for each other when we make plays that change the game on the D side of the puck.” – Aaron Ekblad

“I was just on the right side of some good plays. Chucky (Matthew Tkachuk) made a good play on the first goal to kind of break me free in the first period, and the second one was just kind of lucky, went to the net.” – Nick Cousins

“I thought the guys did a great job not really giving them too much. Give them a lot of credit, we had a hard-fought game last night. For the guys to come out the way they did tonight, we played a really good game.” – Anthony Stolarz

“I think that [second line] keeps getting better. They keep holding onto pucks. They’re starting to read off each other again, just like we saw in the playoffs.” – Paul Maurice

CATS STATS

- Matthew Tkachuk recorded his 28^th career multi-point game with the Panthers.

- Anthony Stolarz improved his record to 8-2-1 on the road this season.

- The Panthers are the first team to reach 90 points this season.

- Florida has scored at least three goals in each game of its six-game win streak.

- Eetu Luostarinen and Gustav Forsling each blocked three shots.

- The Panthers led 23-20 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.

WHAT’S NEXT?

After sweeping their three-game road trip, the Cats are coming home.

Kicking off a two-game homestand, the Panthers will host the Philadelphia Flyers (32-23-8) at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.