The Florida Panthers met the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center to finish their five-game road trip.
With a chance to finish the trip over .500, the Panthers took control in the final five minutes of the second period to pull away from the Wild and added to their lead during third to win convincingly by a final of 6-1 in St. Paul.
Florida controlled play in the first few minutes, and it paid off with a score less than four minutes in.
Jesper Boqvist worked the puck below the goal low-to-high back to Aaron Ekblad at the blue line.
After taking a few steps to the high slot, the wrist shot through traffic went off the far post and in to give the Cats the early 1-0 lead.
Minnesota looked to have tied the game after Kirill Kaprizov redirected Declan Chisholm’s shot past Sergei Bobrovsky.
However, after the Panthers challenged for goaltender interference, it was confirmed that Marco Rossi skated through the crease and clipped Bobrovsky, and it remained a 1-0 Panther lead at 10:20 of the first.
Panthers got into penalty trouble where they were down 5-on-3 for 46 seconds with AJ Greer (charging) and Sam Reinhart (tripping) in the box.
Although they killed the first penalty, the Wild ended up on the scoresheet. Matthew Boldy’s shot pass didn’t quite connect with Kaprizov, but Rossi at the right place retrieved it in the slot and used his backhand to tie the game at 16:11 of the opening frame.
Right before the first period came to an end, Florida took advantage of the Wild’s inability to connect on a stretch pass. The Panthers countered with a stretch of their own from Ekblad to Mackie Samoskevich.
Samoskevich came up the right wing with speed off the rush. Wasting no time, his wrist shot beat Marc Andre-Fleury past the blocker, off the post and in as the Cats reclaimed their lead 18:14 into the first.
Florida started to control play in the second, and after the top line had the Wild pinned in their own zone for over a minute, they found the back of the net after a feed from Matthew Tkachuk to Aleksander Barkov.
Unfortunately for the Cats, the goal would be taken off the board due to offside on the initial entry 46 seconds before the goal after the Wild challenged the play, and it remained a one-goal lead at 13:01 of the second period.
It took less than three minutes for the top line to get that goal back, as they gained the zone, Carter Verhaeghe’s centering feed bounced off the skate of Barkov and found Tkachuk on the doorstep. His shot beat Fleury five-hole and a scrum broke out after Mats Zuccarello bumped Tkachuk into his own goaltender as the top line would not be denied a second time.
After AJ Greer drew a penalty for slashing, the Panthers took advantage. With fast puck movement in the offensive zone and working the puck low-to-high, Ekblad’s one-timer from the high slot was saved.
With some net-front presence, Tkachuk stuck a fork in it off the rebound and in to give the Cats a three-goal lead right before the second intermission.
Panthers went into shut down mode giving the Wild very little space in their own end. Eventually, they added another score in a game that was already out of hand, to make it 5-1 at 11:10 of the third period.
Florida won a board battle in the near side corner where the Wild had everybody to Fleury’s left, the dish from Anton Lundell to Niko Mikkola in the high slot gave him a clear shooting lane.
Mikkola got it past the glove, and it gave him goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, and a career high for goals in a season at four.
Scary moment for the Panthers in the third as they would lose Jesper Boqvist after Marat Khusnutdinov finished a check on the side boards. Boqvist’s helmet flew off and his head hit the ice.
Boqvist did not return to the game.
Florida got a last minute score with 30 seconds left as Eetu Luostarinen’s shot went off the face of defenseman Brock Faber.
After following his shot, Luostarinen shot the puck into the slightly open net to pour it on even more, leading to a 6-1 road win.
Panthers finish their longest road trip of the season 3-2-0, and will return home on Friday night, where they welcome the St. Louis Blues to Sunrise.
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