NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ It wasn't pretty but Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo really needed a victory for his team and especially for his confidence.
Luongo, who has been battling the puck for nearly a month, took advantage of Florida's second scoring outburst in four games as the Panthers staved off the Nashville Predators, 7-4, in a fight-filled affair in Bridgestone Arena Saturday afternoon.
It's the Panthers' fourth victory in their past five games and gets this five-game road trip off on the right skate. They now can enjoy a free night in Music City before jetting to San Jose on Sunday, where they will play the Sharks on Wednesday.
The seven goals was a season-high for the Panthers, surpassing their 6-5 victory over the Senators on Jan. 31. The Panthers actually put nine goals in the net as two of Nashville's goals caromed off of Florida defensemen.
Jonathan Huberdeau, in his third game of the season, notched a goal and two assists. The still red-hot Vincent Trocheck pulled off the rare Gordie Howe hat trick with two goals, an assist and a fight in the third period with P.K. Subban.
Luongo, who had 26 saves, improved to 10-4-1 in Bridgestone. He has given up 25 goals in his last seven appearances (2-4-1), including three in relief of James Reimer last Thursday.
Perhaps stoked from that 6-3 shellacking by the Kings, the Panthers stormed out of the gate with a quick goal when Jaromir Jagr redirected Keith Yandle's shot from inside the blue line for his 10th goal of the season at 4:24. Yandle leads the Panthers with 25 assists.
Jagr, 44, has now scored in double-digits for all 23 seasons of his illustrious career, and he also crept to within one point of his 1,900 to become just the second player in NHL history (Wayne Gretzky) to reach that plateau.
Just one second later, a heavyweight fight took place between Panthers toughie Shawn Thornton and 6-foot-4 Austin Watson with both players taking turns getting knocked down.
That seemed to pump up the Predators as two seconds after Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson was sent to the penalty box for holding the stick, Roman Josi's long knuckler was juggled by Luongo who slammed his stick in frustration after the puck caromed off the stick of defenseman Jason Demers and in.
The Panthers held the Predators to six shots in the opening period and entered the second at 1-1. The Panthers recaptured the lead on a power-play goal by Jussi Jokinen at 5:52. Reilly Smith led the rush up ice, crossed to Trocheck, who zipped it to Jokinen for his seventh goal and second in two games.
About a minute later Luongo was beat on another long shot however, the puck deflected off Yandle, with Viktor Arvidsson getting credit for the goal. Back came the Panthers, who would score the next three goals in a span of 2:29.
Nick Bjugstad roared up ice before depositing a high backhand from an acute angle for just his second goal of the season in his 26th game. Twenty-nine seconds later Trocheck intercepted a pass from Forsberg and raced in alone on Pekka Rinne before snapping it in for his team-leading 19th red-lighter.
That ended Rinne's afternoon as coach Peter Laviolette yanked him for just the third time this season and brought in Jusse Saros, who couldn't contain the Panthers' onslaught. Two minutes later Barkov won a faceoff deep in Florida's offensive zone, followed it in and swatted it in for his 11th and second in two games.
It was Florida's second power-play goal of the game after going 0-for-12 in its last three games. The Predators had allowed the Panthers just one power-play goal in 40 attempts over 14 previous games.
However, despite being on their fourth power play of the game, the Panthers allowed a shorthanded goal as Jokinen's pass set up an odd-man rush that was completed by Arvidsson's one-time blast at 17:01 to cut Florida's lead to 5-3 after two, while giving Nashville momentum.
Huberdeau took back the momentum when he snapped a wrister past Saros 2:30 for a more secure three-goal cushion. It came in handy as Arvidsson knocked in his third goal of the game with 1:12 left for a hat trick. Instead of tossing hats on the ice, the fans threw their handout oven mitts. They were also happy in defeat as four goals by Nashville means free Frostys at Wendys.
Trocheck added an empty-netter with 37 seconds left for his 20th of the season.
