The backbreaking goal for the Florida Panthers on Tuesday came early in the third period. Jonathan Huberdeau turned the puck over in the offensive zone while on the penalty kill, and the New Jersey Devils made a series of passes before Pavel Zacha’s backhand on a rebound in front of the net became the latest to slip past Spencer Knight.
It was the third of four consecutive unanswered goals by the Devils en route to Florida’s 7-3 loss at the Prudential Center.
And for the second consecutive night, Florida (10-2-1) looked like a shell of the team that avoided a regulation loss through its first 11 games of the season. One night earlier, the Panthers fell behind by four goals to the New York Rangers, went on a scoring flurry in the third in an attempt to rally back but lost, 4-3.
Characteristics that have defined the Florida Panthers’ hot start to the season — strong goaltending, puck possession, stinginess on the penalty kill — were nearly non-existent.
Knight, the Panthers’ ballyhooed rookie goaltender, has given up 10 goals over the past two days and 16 over his last 11 periods of hockey dating back to the second period of Florida’s win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday when Sergei Bobrovsky was sidelined with an upper-body injury.
Florida, which had rarely played from behind all season, never led in its loss to the Rangers on Monday and led just twice on Tuesday.
Sam Bennett, playing in his first game since Oct. 29, opened scoring less than four minutes into play when he corralled a rebound from his wrist shot and slipped a backhanded shot past Mackenzie Blackwood to give Florida an early 1-0 lead.
The Devils (6-3-2) closed the period with back-to-back goals. Andreas Johnsson’s wrist shot on the power play made it 1-1 with 4:14 left in the opening period before Nico Hischier tipped in a pass from Ty Smith two minutes later to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead.
Florida responded with a pair of goals of its own in the start of the second period. Barkov tied the game with a snap shot 24 seconds into the period. It was his 189th career goal — the most in Panthers history. Just over a minute later, Owen Tippett gave Florida a 3-2 advantage when he tipped in a Gustav Forsling shot.
The lead lasted ... 29 seconds. Johnsson scored his second goal of the game on a wrist shot just to Knight’s left to tie the game at 3-3. New Jersey retook the lead for good on a P.K. Subban slap shot from the point with 1:45 left in the second period. The Devils added insurance on Zacha’s third-period power-play goal, a snap shot from Smith and an empty-netter from Jimmy Vesey.
