Panthers win streak ends at seven, fall 4-1 to Devils

SUNRISE — In an 82 game season, you won’t win them all. That was the story for the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night as they fell 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils, ending their win streak at seven games. 

Timo Meier’s game winning goal came with 3:29 left in the second period, as the Devils picked up their 11th win on the season — seven of those coming on the road. 

In the loss, Florida (11-4-1) slipped one point behind New Jersey (11-6-2) for first place in the East. They have three games in hand on the Devils and will get a chance to leap frog them on Thursday night, as the two sides will meet once again in Sunrise.

Jack Hughes scored the first of New Jersey’s four goals when he beat Spencer Knight for his eighth goal of the season 8:30 into the first. 

Timo Meier, Paul Cotter, and Ondrej Palat also scored for the Devils while goaltender Jacob Markstrom saved 34 of 35 shots in what was his eighth win of the season.

While the home fans went home without a win, they were in store for one of the best, heavyweight hockey fights they’ll ever see. 

At the midway point of the second, New Jersey’s Brenden Dillon and Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich dropped the gloves, as the two exchanged numerous consecutive blows in an old school hockey fight — energizing the crowd in Sunrise. 

“That’s an old school [fight],” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “The linesmen didn’t jump in too early — let two guys hammer away… I love when [Jonah’s] in the lineup.”

Gadjovich landed the final blow of the tilt and he did it while having a jersey over his head for the majority of it.

“I saw nothing,” Gadjovich said. “I buried my head and tried to keep throwing.”

Sam Reinhart scored the lone Panthers’ goal of the evening, when he deflected in an Uvis Balinskis point shot past Markstrom on the power play. 

Reinhart’s 12 goals is tied for most in the NHL with Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield.

Florida was without the services of one of their top forwards, Sam Bennett, on Tuesday night. Bennett (upper-body), was expected to play, however something tightened up on him in the morning didn’t improve, according to Paul Maurice. 

“It didn’t loosen up over the course of the day, so we couldn’t play him,” Maurice said. “If it keeps him out of another game — he may come back back tomorrow and be 100% fine — if not it wouldn’t be a long term situation.