Jonathan Huberdeau had the best game of his career, a hat trick and a career-high five points.
But somehow, the Florida Panthers didn’t win.
The Panthers gave up two goals in the final 2:08 of regulation and Filip Forsberg scored the game-winner with one minute left in overtime to lead the Nashville Predators to a 6-5 win on Thursday at the BB&T Center.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, starting his 500th career NHL game, gave up a season high six goals on 41 shots.
It spoiled the joy for Huberdeau, who recorded his first career hat trick and also became just the sixth player in Panthers history to record at least five points in a game. Olli Jokinen has the record with six points on March 17, 2007. The other four with five-point outings: Aleksander Barkov (March 8, 2019), David Booth (April 11, 2009), Brett McLean (Feb. 5, 2008) and Pavel Bure (Feb. 10, 2001).
Huberdeau now has a team-high 12 points (four goals, eight assists) through the first seven games of the season.
Barkov and Aaron Ekblad also scored goals Thursday for the Panthers. Florida (6-0-2) remains the only team in the NHL that has not lost in regulation this season
The Panthers and Predators (5-5-0) play again Friday at 7 p.m. as the Panthers continue their six-game homestand.
A back-and-forth first period featured four goals on 28 combined shots.
Huberdeau opened scoring when he scooped up a loose puck in the neutral zone, flew past defenseman Dante Fabbro and laid a sliding backhanded shot past Juuse Saros to give Florida a 1-0 lead just 1:28 into the game. It was Huberdeau’s 150th career goal, making him just the fifth player in Panthers history to hit that milestone. The other four: Olli Jokinen (188), Aleksander Barkov (158), Scott Mellanby (157) and Pavel Bure (152).
Nashville’s Forsberg, who scored two total goals and added two assists, tied the game at the 9:02 mark of the period when his slap shot from the right circle on a power play went over Bobrovsky’s shoulder, bounced off the crossbar and briefly went in the net.
Huberdeau gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead just over a minute later when he deflected Marcus Nutivaara’s one-timer from the point into the net.
The Predators once again scored an equalizer with 4:12 left in the period when Calle Jarnkrok took a cross-crease feed from Forsberg and scored an easy backdoor goal with a wrist shot.
The Panthers took a 5-3 lead into the third period after Ekblad and Barkov scored power-play goals in the second period and Huberdeau notched his third goal of the game. Ekblad’s goal, scored 54 seconds into the period, came on a one-timer in front of the net on a feed from Barkov, who slid the puck through Nashville defenseman Matt Benning’s legs before passing to Ekblad.
Barkov’s goal, scored just over eight minutes into the period, came when he took a feed from Huberdeau and fired a wrist shot that bounced off Saros’ head and into the net. The goal put Barkov in sole possession of second place in Panthers history for career goals scored.
Huberdeau completed his hat trick with a wrist shot from the slot with 4:06 left in the second period.
Nashville’s Matt Duchene also recorded a goal in the second period.
Roman Josi pulled the Predators within one with 2:06 left in regulation and Duchene added his second goal on a power play with 58.6 seconds left to force overtime.
And then Forsberg put the dagger in Florida’s hopes when he beat Bobrovsky one on one in overtime.
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FINALLY, A STEADY SCHEDULE
The Panthers know they are going to be busy the rest of the season — and they’re embracing it.
They played just six games over the first 22 days of the regular season. Thursday marked the first of 50 games in the final 94 days.
The Panthers know the grind ahead but also acknowledged that at this point, they’d rather be playing on a regular basis than practicing.
“I think you need some sort of rhythm to get going a little bit,” defenseman Anton Stralman said. “I know I do and I’m sure a lot of the guys on the team would agree that when you play every other day, you kind of get into a rhythm of game, practice, game practice. You get a feel for it. The body can, I guess, program for it. These disruptions that we had so far, although it’s totally out of our control, it’s a little bit of a new thing to kind of navigate but I think we handled it well. We pulled out points in all the games [heading into the homestand], and that’s just a testament to the strength of this team and the way we prepare.”
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THIS AND THAT
— Prior to Thursday’s game, the Panthers paid tribute to and held a moment of silence for Laura Schwartzenberger and Daniel Alfin, the two FBI agents killed Tuesday in Sunrise while serving a warrant on a child pornography case.
— Defenseman Noah Juulsen and forward Vinnie Hinostroza were the Panthers’ two healthy scratches on Thursday.
