It wasn’t flashy or overwhelming, but the Florida Panthers’ seven-game road losing streak is finally over because they took care of business against the worst team in the NHL.
The Panthers scored twice in the span of 10 seconds in the middle of the first period and cruised to a 3-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.
The win gives Florida (18-4-4) the most points in the NHL and has the Panthers tied for the best goal differential in the league.
Florida has now won 4 of 5 and 8 of 11 since a four-game losing streak in early November.
Although they were even with the Coyotes in shots on goal and Arizona actually had a 27-16 edge in scoring chances, the Panthers never trailed at Gila River Arena and they did it without two top-line forwards.
Star center Aleksander Barkov went down with an unspecified injury Tuesday and winger Anthony Duclair has now missed seven straight games with a lower-body injury, and Andrew Brunette decided to take caution with the two first-line players against the last-place Coyotes.
“They didn’t feel great today,” the interim coach said, “so we’ll see where they’re at tomorrow and go from there.” Against Arizona, Florida didn’t miss them too badly with its depth once again delivering against an overmatched opponent.
Fourth-line right wing Patric Hornqvist scored the first goal with 10:55 left in the first period and Sam Bennett, centering the top line with Barkov injured, followed 10 seconds later to give the Panthers an early 2-0 lead in Glendale, Arizona.
After Coyotes right wing Phil Kessel scored a power play goal with 3:07 left in the first period to cut Florida’s lead 2-1, forward Sam Reinhart answered with one of his own to push the lead back to 3-1 in the last minute of the first. Ultimately, the Panthers won on the penalty kill.
Florida killed off four of the Coyotes’ five power plays and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced, including 8 of 9 on the penalty kill, to get the Panthers a win despite an uncharacteristically quiet offensive performance.
