The Panthers pushed one of the league’s best to the brink and gained a point on the Boston Bruins as they fell 3-2 to the Nashville Predators, in shootout fashion on Sunday afternoon in Sunrise.
Sitting six points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wildcard spot, the playoffs are well within reach for the Cats who have fully embraced the “Never Say Die” attitude that has been thrust upon them.
The Panthers used strong transition play to test the Predators’ defense and Carter Hutton with strong scoring chances early on. That strong play yielded the game’s first powerplay after a strong shift from Brandon Pirri who goaded one-time Panther, Olli Jokinen, to take a hooking penalty. The powerplay went on without a goal but the Cats controlled play for two minutes and showed some strong decision making that led to several high end scoring chances. Dave Bolland negated the final seconds of the the powerplay by interfering with Hutton but the Predators could not crack the Panthers PK code and went without a shot on the ensuing man advantage.
The story of the first trickled into the second as the Panthers demonstrated some strong in zone presence to generate offense but were stymied by Hutton’s pads.
Stymied until Dave Bolland and Tomas Fleischmann used a strong forechek to force a turnover and turn it into the first goal of the game. Fleischmann was able to pick up the loose puck and snap it past Hutton’s shoulder for his sixth of the season.
Less than six minutes later, Aaron Ekblad blew the roof off the BB&T center. The phenom doubled his team’s lead off an incredible effort for his eighth of the year. The goal came after an odd-man rush turned to goal mouth scrum in which Ekblad drove the net, got taken down, followed the play and potted the loose puck into the Nashville net.
Derek MacKenzie watched the Predators cut the lead in half from the penalty box. The goal came less than five minutes into the third period as Seth Jones took a Mike Ribeiro pass and blasted his fifth past Luongo from the point.
“Get luckier” were the words that came out of my mouth right before Filip Forsberg scored his 18th of the season to tie the game up at 2. A point shot was blocked and bounced off of two players before falling perfectly into Forsberg’s wheelhouse who then beat Luongo blocker side.
The game would need a shootout to decide the victor as Matt Cullen opened the scoring taking his time and faking his way to the net before putting it past Luongo with a quick snap. Brad Boyes would tie it up off a shot that just trickled through Hutton’s pads. Craig Smith beat Luongo with a nifty backhand before Nick Bjugstad put a heavy shot past Hutton to keep the Panthers alive. Luongo stopped Nashville’s third shooter to send the shootout to sudden death.
Bolland tried to beat Hutton five-hole but was denied and Forsberg finished what he started by beating Luongo with a dandy deke for the win.
The loss might be a tough pill to swallow after leading by two goals going into the third period but fans can take solace in the fact that a point was earned and every point matters at this stage in the season.
The Panthers are back at it on Tuesday as they take the league’s top team: The Anaheim Ducks.
Mike Obrand can be reached for contact on Twitter or via email at mikeobrand@gmail.com.
