SUNRISE, Fla. _ Jaromir Jagr Night and the Panthers-Predators game at the BB&T Center was nearly cancelled after the deadly shooting earlier Friday at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
However, county officials, the NHL and Panthers executive chairman Peter Luukko agreed the show must go on and in the end Jagr received his standing ovations during video highlights of his certain Hall of Fame career.
Far more significantly, Jagr delivered point No. 1,893 with a secondary assist on Jonathan Marchessault's game-winning goal in the third period to lift the Panthers to a 2-1 victory over the sluggish and slugging Predators.
It snapped Florida's five-game losing streak at home and moved the Panthers to two points from second place in the Atlantic Division with third-place Boston on tap Saturday.
The Panthers couldn't have done it without the services of two emergency goaltenders.
Roberto Luongo's fourth bid to win his 448th career victory to pass Terry Sawchuk into fifth place all-time was placed on hold when he was nicked in pregame warmups and scratched from the start. In stepped 1B goalie James Reimer (as interim coach Tom Rowe refers to the dependable backup), and he notched 26 saves for his fifth consecutive solid start.
If Reimer was injured, the Panthers would've had to call on Bobby Segin, a 25-year-old account executive in the Panthers sales department. In a Walter Mitty-like scenario, Segin, a former goalie for the University of Connecticut, filled in for Luongo in a practice last February.
Moments after a somber moment of silence for the victims of the barbaric attack, the Panthers took a quick 1-0 lead when captain Derek MacKenzie innocently chipped the puck in deep. The carom off the end boards found the stick of a hard-charging Greg McKegg, who flipped a backhander over rookie goalie Juuse Saros at 2:24 of the first period.
McKegg, who was recalled from the Panthers' AHL affiliate in Springfield, Mass., on Dec. 30, scored his second goal in as many games, and fourth of his 41-game career. Saros was in for starter Pekka Rinne, who helped the Predators crush the Lightning 6-1 in Tampa Thursday night.
Luongo showed up on the bench early in the first period and was declared fit enough to back up Reimer. However, he kept returning to the dressing room to tend to his issue and was eventually ruled out with an upper-body injury. The Panthers also lost forward Nick Bjugstad to an apparent groin injury in the first period.
The Panthers, coming off a dismal 4-1 loss to the Jets on Wednesday, outshot the lead-footed Predators 27-16 through the first two periods, but still only held a 1-0 lead heading into the third.
That disappeared when seconds after Reimer made two sterling stops on Calle Jamkrok during a power play, a slow line change led to a point-blank goal by Craig Smith at 5:03 for a 1-1 tie.
MacKenzie got into a skirmish with Nashville's Austin Watson in the first period but after Watson cross-checked Vincent Trocheck into the boards without a penalty being called, defenseman Jason Demers stepped in and took a beating from Watson, while earning 17 PIMs, including a 10-minute misconduct.
