SUNRISE, Fla. — After storming back from three-goal deficits in each of the last two games, the Florida Panthers decided to make things easier on themselves against the St. Louis Blues.
On Saturday, they decided to only be behind by one goal in the third period before rallying again for a 4-3 shootout win in Sunrise.
Maxim Mamin scored twice, including the game-tying goal with 2:34 left, and fellow forward Sam Reinhart scored the decisive goal in a shootout to give the Panthers (17-4-3) a third straight come-from-behind win at home.
Florida, which already entered the day with the best points percentage in the NHL, temporarily moved into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division with its third straight third-period comeback.
The Panthers openly worried about what a rare day game could mean for them, especially following back-to-back slow starts against the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres. In both of those come-from-behind wins, Florida fell behind by three goals in the in the first two periods and trailed in the third before storming back to win.
On Tuesday, the Panthers were down by three at the start of the third period and getting outplayed by the Capitals — another of the best teams in the league — before putting together a monster final period, outshooting Washington, 27-2, to pull out a stunning win in regulation. On Thursday, the comeback was a bit more tame: Florida was outplaying the Sabres, but down by three in the middle of the second period, anyway, and kept at it to eventually win by three goals.
The Panthers’ latest comeback win fell somewhere in the middle. The Blues (12-8-3) are a perennial playoff team and jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first six minutes on a goal by St. Louis center Logan Brown, then answered two Florida equalizers with goals of their own.
After Mamin tied the game 1-1 with 12:56 left in the first, Blues defenseman Jake Walman put St. Louis back ahead with 13:24 left in the second. After Reinhart tied the game 2-2 with two minutes left in the second, Blues winger Brandon Saad put St. Louis back ahead with 15:31 left in regulation.
Florida was trailing in the third period of a sixth straight game. After the way their Panthers rallied in their last two, the 13,446 at FLA Live Arena weren’t worried.
With 2:34 remaining, Mamin finally delivered. After it couldn’t manage any good chances on a power play with 5:02 remaining, Florida got another offensive zone faceoff and pulled goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for an extra attacker. Center Lundell won the faceoff to the side and Mamin immediately ripped a one-timer past Blues goaltender Ville Husso to tie the game 3-3 and force overtime.
The 3-on-3 session was scoreless, so Florida went to a shootout to try to complete the comeback. Lundell scored, Reinhart scored and Bobrovsky, who finished with 22 saves, made two stops in the shootout to keep the Panthers’ comeback streak alive.
