Takeaways as penalty kill dooms Florida Panthers in loss to Minnesota Wild

All season, the penalty kill has been one of the Florida Panthers’ strength.

That was far from the case on Friday in the Panthers’ 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Amerant Bank Arena to cap a homestand to forget.

Each of Minnesota’s first five goals came on the power play. The five power-play goals allowed are tied for the most ever allowed by the Panthers in a game in franchise history. It has also happened three other times before Friday: Jan. 19, 2006, at the Phoenix Coyotes; April 11, 2006, at the Toronto Maple Leafs; and Oct. 23, 2006, at home against the Atlanta Thrashers.

“All the things that we’re really good at, we weren’t,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said about the penalty kill. “It starts with faceoffs and mostly clears after that. We were behind. ... We’ve got to clear the net front and we’ve got to get clears.”

The Panthers fall to 27-14-4, went 1-2-2 on the five-game homestand and are now on a four-game losing streak.

After Minnesota mounted a 5-2 lead by the first minute of the third period, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling scored 18 seconds apart midway through the third period to cut the Panthers’ deficit to one goal but they got no closer despite a slew of opportunities in the third period. The Wild iced the game with an empty-net goal with 11.8 seconds left to play. Aaron Ekblad and Eetu Luostarinen scored the Panthers’ first two goals.

Before Friday, the Panthers had given up no more than two power-play goals in a game this season — and only did that four times. Florida’s 84.4-percent success rate on the penalty kill was the fifth-best in the NHL entering Friday.

But Minnesota (19-21-5) had all the right answers against the Panthers’ penalty kill on Friday, scoring on five of their six opportunities with the man advantage.

Kirill Kaprizov scored twice — 2:49 into regulation and 41 seconds into the third period — while Ryan Hartman, Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello all scored their power-play goals in a stretch of 7:10 in the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled after the Zucarrello goal, having given up four goals on 14 shots against. Anthony Stolarz finished in net for Florida.

“We took a lot of penalties and that’s tough to get behind in a game like that against a good team,” Ekblad said. “It’s never easy. Our PK has been a strong suit for us, but they did a good job picking us apart.”

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Big game for Aaron Ekblad

Ekblad entered Friday with just nine points (one goal, eight assists) through 27 games played this season.

Against the Wild, Ekblad tied a career high with four points, scoring his second-period goal and adding assists on each of Florida’s other three goals.

It’s the third time in his career that Ekblad has produced a four-point game, with the others coming on March 10, 2022, against the Philadelphia Flyers and March 4, 2021, at the Nashville Predators.

Sam Reinhart’s goal streak ends

Panthers All-Star forward Sam Reinhart saw his franchise-record goal streak end at eight games on Friday.

The streak broke Pavel Bure’s franchise record of seven. Reinhart also scored a special teams goal in every game of that eight-game stretch, which is an NHL record.

A road heavy finish before the All-Star Break

Three of the Panthers’ final four games ahead of the All-Star Break will be away from Sunrise.

It starts Monday when Florida travels to Nashville to face the Predators, with puck drop scheduled for 8 p.m. The Panthers then return home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday and finish the slate with a back-to-back at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday and New York Islanders on Jan. 27.

Florida’s next game after that: Feb. 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Amerant Bank Arena, the first of a three-game homestand.