Takeaways as Florida Panthers’ dominant second period leads to win over Pittsburgh Penguins

Jordan McPherson
·3 min read
3

There was very little offense in the first period on Wednesday between the Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice said that was by design. In an intermission interview on TNT, Maurice said the goal of the first 20 minutes was to grind down the Penguins and then turn up the offensive intensity after the opening frame.

The strategy worked.

The Panthers scored four goals in a stretch of about nine minutes in the second period and cruised from there to a 5-2 win over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena to begin a three-game road trip.

The Panthers improve to 34-15-4 on the season, two points behind the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh falls to 23-20-7.

Matthew Tkachuk, Jonah Gadjovich, Aaron Ekblad and Anton Lundell scored Florida’s second-period goals, with Tkachuk adding assists on the goals from Ekblad and Lundell for a three-point period.

Lundell added a third-period goal for his sixth career multi-goal game and his first of the season.

All four Florida second-period goals came immediately after Pittsburgh had a power-play goal disallowed due to a high stick.

The Panthers play the second half of a back-to-back on Thursday at the Buffalo Sabres before facing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday to complete the three-game, four-day road trip.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Matthew Tkachuk’s heater continues

With his three-point night on Wednesday, Tkachuk now has 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists) over Florida’s past 21 games. The Panthers, unsurprisingly, are 16-3-2 in that stretch.

And all three of his points on this night came during a nine-minute flurry in the second period. It started with his goal 4:28 into the period on a give-and-go with Evan Rodrigues, who moments earlier had gotten out of the penalty box.

Tkachuk then had the primary assist on Ekblad’s power-play goal 8:27 into the frame and on Lundell’s goal 13:02 into the frame when Lundell deflected in Tkachuk’s shot.

Tkachuk has logged multiple points in 11 of those 21 games, including six of the past eight.

Wednesday also marked Tkachuk’s 20th three-point game since joining the Panthers ahead of the 2022-23 season. Only Connor McDavid (31), Nikita Kucherov (25), Nathan MacKinnon (24) and Leon Draisaitl (24) have more over that span.

Another big Bobrovsky effort

While the offensive outbreak gave the Panthers the lead, goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy once again did his part to make sure the efforts didn’t go to waste.

Bobrovsky stopped 25 of 27 shots he faced to improve to 26-10-2 on the season.

The two goals Bobrovsky allowed: A Jake Guentzel wrist shot from the high slot with 4:26 left in the second period and a wrist shot from former Panthers prospect John Ludvig 6:07 into the third period. The Panthers challenged the Guentzel goal for goaltender interference on the play but the call stood.

Wednesday was Bobrovsky’s fifth consecutive start allowing no more than two goals and the 21st overall game in 39 starts. The Panthers are 18-3-0 in those games.

Road warriors

With the win, the Panthers are now 18-7-2 on the road this season and have won each of their past nine games away from Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida has outscored opponents 38-16 over the nine-game road win streak.

Florida’s .704 points percentage on the road is the best in the NHL, while the 18 wins are tied with the Vancouver Canucks for most in the league.

“Feeling comfortable on the road might be the most important attribute that you want to build over the year,” Maurice said after practice Tuesday. “Whether you’re the underdog or the favorite, you’ve got to win road games. We feel good on the road.”