Forsling scores OT winner, Panthers defeat Knights 4-3

SUNRISE — 60 minutes of hockey wasn’t enough on Saturday as the Florida Panthers went to overtime for the second consecutive game.

Unlike Thursday night against Vancouver, the Panthers were able to pick up the extra point, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3  in OT thanks to Gustav Forsling’s second goal of the season.

Florida improved to 4-2-1 on the season in the win — extending their point streak to four straight games.

Here’s tonight’s takeaways.

All aboard the Gus Bus

When the Panthers need a shutdown shift, they turn to Gustav Forsling. When they need a to kill a penalty, they turn to Gustav Forsling. And it appears when they need an overtime goal, they turn to Gustav Forsling. 

With just 19 skaters in the lineup, Forsling logged a game-high 28:07 on Saturday, he capped that off with a top shelf goal to seal the win — however roofing it on the open net wasn’t his intention.

“I did not want to do that but it went in,” he said happily.

The 28-year-old Swede is highly respected in the Panther room and now across the league. His teammates and coach can’t speak highly enough about him.

Aaron Ekblad started his postgame scrum by saying ‘are you surprised at this point’ when asked about Forsling’s big time performance. 

“He’s incredible right?” Ekblad said of his blueline partner. “It starts in the gym [and] in the offseason. He’s the hardest worker and somebody I can always follow.”

Head coach Paul Maurice backed up Ekblad’s fitness claim on Forsling and also gave a nod to Florida’s longest tenured defensemen as well. 

“Gustav Forsling is an incredibly fit man and Aaron Ekblad, his test numbers were off the charts this year relative to where he’d been,” Maurice spoke of his top d-pair. “They both, after a pretty successful season, put an incredible amount of time to give them a chance to be as good as they were tonight… It wasn’t just ‘They were good enough for 2 and a half hours, you’ve got to be good for two and a half years to get to that fitness level and that compete level. I’m happy for them; they earned it.”

Forsling’s overtime winner was the only time Florida led the entire game as Vegas held one-goal  leads three times during Saturday’s 2023 Stanley Cup Final rematch. 

Panthers string together point streak without Barkov and Tkachuk

The Panthers have picked up points in four straight games (3-0-1) — all of which they were without star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. 

“I liked that game today an awful lot,” Maurice said. “That’s seven (defensemen) and 11 (forwards) for us, and [Vegas] is a deep team and they’ve got a heavy backend. That’s as good a game as we played this year.”

In their absence, the Panthers have turned  some new faces to provide quality depth minutes. And on Saturday, they played short a man as Jonah Gadjovich hasn’t recovered from the injury that withdrew him from Thursday’s contest against Vancouver.

“We’re missing two  huge parts of our lineup [and] we’re finding a way,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “Everyone’s looking real good out there. The new guys are fitting in well.”

Tkachuk is tracking to return for Tuesday’s game against Minnesota, while Barkov is expected to return before the team heads to Finland at the end of the month.

Tuesday’s matchup against the Minnesota Wild will be the last game Florida plays at home for over two weeks, as the team will head to New York and then Tampere, Finland for the NHL Global Series. 

Luostarinen, Lundell, Reinhart stay hot

The trio combined for two goals and six points on Saturday, with Reinhart extending his point streak to five games and Lundell to four. 

With 6:17 left in regulation, Eetu Luostarinen tied the game with his third goal of the season. 

“Pretty good game from us — solid effort from the team,” Luostarinen said. “I think everybody chipped in and played hard. We got the victory, so it was good.”

Alongside Luostarinen’s goal, Reinhart had a game-high three points (1-2-3), while  Lundell had two assists in the win. 

That line has been somewhat of a safety blanket for the Panthers. Through injuries or slumps — when they need something that works — Maurice turns to them.

“[This is the] best iteration of this grouping, right?” Maurice said post game. “Anton had a couple turnovers he wouldn’t like and he still found a way to play a complete game.”

“You go back to when they were playing together two years ago — it was Anton’s second year in the league and Lusty’s first year off the bottom line and they learned so fast,” Maurice added. “They’re so much stronger and better now. That can be a number one line now.”