Five Takeaways from Panthers’ 4-3 win over Devils

After starting the season 0-2, Florida finished the the final leg of their three-game road trip Monday night in New Jersey against the Devils.

 

The first 41 minutes of the game made it seemed like the Panthers would run away with the result tonight, however, a surging third period comeback by the Devils made the game come down to the wire.

New Jersey threw everything they could at Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers, but in the end Florida was able to hang on long enough to prevent the full comeback — taking Monday’s game 4-3 for their first win of the season.

 

Here’s tonight’s five takeaways.

Evan Rodrigues impresses again

Three games into his Panther career, Evan Rodrigues continues to prove that he’s worth every dollar of his four-year, $12M contract — which he signed this offseason. 

 

Just two days after his four-point night in Winnipeg, Rodrigues got his name back in the box score tonight in New Jersey.

 

A little under four minutes into the first period, Rodrigues picked up his fifth point of the season off of Sam Reinhart’s 200th career goal.

 

Rodrigues released a quick shot from slot which was redirected by Reinhart past Devils’ goalie Vitek Vanecek — giving Florida an early 1-0 lead.

 

Rodrigues leads all Panthers skaters in scoring with five points.

 

Niko Mikkola gets his first goal as a Panther

All across the board, Florida’s defensemen like to get active and jump into the play.

 

First-year Panther defenseman Niko Mikkola was able to pick up his first goal with the team by doing just that — getting active.

 

The play leading up to Mikkola’s goal started with a soccer-esque zone hold by Dmitry Kulikov — who kept the play alive by kicking the puck from his skate to his stick.

 

Matthew Tkachuk received a pass from Kulikov before hitting a streaking Mikkola backdoor on the rush.

 

All the 6’5 Finn had to do was tap the puck into an open goal for his first of the season, and first as a Panther. Mikkola’s goal gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead midway through the second. 

 

Sam Reinhart gets career goal No. 200… & 201

Sam Reinhart has lived up to expectations after joining the Panthers in the summer of 2021. 

 

Reinhart’s two seasons in Sunrise were the best of his careers — with 67 points last year and 82 the year before.

 

Entering Monday night’s game, Reinhart was just one goal shy of hitting the 200 career-goal milestone.

 

As mentioned early, he got No. 200 under four minutes into the game after deflecting Evan Rodrigues’ initial shot past Vanecek.

 

Two periods after opening the scoring, Reinhart made the Panthers’ lead four, in an almost identical fashion. 

 

With the Panthers on the powerplay 59 seconds into the third, Oliver Ekman-Larsson fired a shot from the point, which was deflected in by Reinhart for his second goal of the night.

 

Reinhart had himself a great showing tonight — and was just inches away from getting himself a hattrick later in the game.

 

New Jersey made it interesting in the third

Florida held a four goal lead up early in the third period,  but the Devils still had some fight in  them despite trailing.

 

New Jersey was able to get some life with their first goal of the game coming 3:35 into the third. 

 

On the power play, Jack Hughes took the open space, and walked the blueline before wiring a shot through a sea of bodies.

 

Erik Haula, screening Sergei Bobrosvky, got his stick on Hughes’ shot — redirecting the puck past Bobrovsky to make the deficit a tad smaller at 4-1.

 

Five Minutes later Haula got himself back into the action again — ripping a shot through Bobrosvky before Michael McCleod cleaned up the rebound, cutting the Panthers’ lead to just two.

 

Now down two, the Devils would go to the power play and pull the goalie with four minutes left in the game. After killing most of the power play, it looked like Florida may get out of the kill unscathed.

 

However, with 2:23 left in the third, Jesper Bratt beat Bobrovsky up high, and all of a sudden it’s a one goal game.

 

In the end, New Jersey’s comeback would fall short, but their effort in the third period had the Panthers’ on their heels.

 

Justin Sourdif makes his NHL debut

Last week when the opening day rosters were released, Florida had three rookies crack the roster.

 

Mackie Samoskevich and Uvis Balinskis both made their NHL debuts Thursday in Minnesota.

 

On Monday night, Justin Sourdif was able to finally take the rookie lap and step on the ice for his first career NHL game. 

 

Before the game, Sourdiff expressed his excitement to the media.

 

“I couldn’t be more excited. It’ll probably be pretty tough to get a nap in this afternoon.”

 

After a successful junior career, the 21-year-old forward played his first professional season last year in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers. 

 

Sourdif made the Panthers opening night roster this season after having a great training camp and preseason.

 

Tonight, Sourdif played 10 minutes — all even strength — and finished the game with one shot on goal.