Takeaways: Panthers Defeat Knights in Stanley Cup Final Rematch

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers faced the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights for the first time since last season’s cup final on Saturday. The extremely physical contest saw the Panthers winners, defeating the Knights 4-2 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Sergei Bobrovsky had 23 saves in his 15th win of the season. The Panthers enter the holiday break in a playoff spot with a 19-12-2 record.

Here’s today’s takeaways.

Panthers come out firing in the first

The ice was tilted heavily in Florida’s favor in the opening 20 minutes.

Florida came out of the gates hot and ready to play in the first period. Vegas were on their heels for nearly the entirety of the opening period.

Knights’ goalie Jiri Patera didn’t have much help, facing 20 shots in the period. His teammates couldn’t generate much the other way, getting just three total shots on Sergei Bobrovsky. 

The Knights had an xGF (expected goals) of 0.1 in the period. The Panthers had an xGF of 1.67, per Natural Stat Trick. 

“The first period was about, stylistically as close to the game that we want to play,” coach Paul Maurice said. 

Despite the flat out domination by Florida in the opening frame, the score was still 0-0 as the two teams went into the break.

Vegas bounced back well in the second, taking the lead just 1:21 into the period from Mark Stone’s 11th goal of the year

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The one goal deficit didn’t deter the Panthers, as they did end up scoring four times on Saturday in the win.

Tensions carry over from June

These two sides haven’t seen each other since Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final — where the Knights would hoist the cup on home ice. 

While the summer was cheerful  for the Knights, it was a disappointing one for the Panthers.

The pleasantries from last season’s final were not lost on Saturday. 

With the game still scoreless in the first, Ryan Lomberg and Keegan Kolesar dropped the gloves. Lomberg needed just one punch to takedown Kolesar, thus setting up for a feisty remainder of the contest. 

There was some history there. Kolesar was the player who hit Matthew Tkachuk in Game 3 — which led to Tkachuk fracturing his sternum.

“Credit to him for kind of letting me geet redemption for last year… he’s the guy that caught Chucky to take him out of the series,” Lomberg said. “He was obviously understanding and gave me my shot there.”

The game saw a total of 80 penalty minutes between both teams (41 FLA, 39 VGK). For score keeping sake, five misconducts and two roughing penalties were given out at the buzzer.

“There’s still a lot of ballet out there, but then it’s a bare knuckles fight at sometimes too,” Maurice said when talking about the extracurricular activities. 

Florida cashes in twice on the power play

The Panthers’ strong suit this season has not been their power play.

Entering Saturday’s afternoon fixture, the Panthers were 23rd in the league on the power play, scoring just 18 times on 100 attempts (18 percent).

With the game tied in the third period, Carter Verhaeghe scored on Florida’s fourth power play attempt of the night — giving Floriida a 3-2 lead.

Less than 90 seconds after Verhaeghe’s go-ahead goal, the Panthers would return to the man-advantage. 

Sam Reinhart doubled Florida’s lead 8:09 into the third — Florida’s second with the extra man. 

“The power play was good tonight,” Verhaeghe said. “We had a couple opportunities which was nice… it’s definitely huge going forward.”

This was just the fourth time all season where the Panthers had multiple power play goals.  

Panthers Notes

Florida’s next game will be Dec. 27 in Tampa. 

Carter Verhaeghe scored his 100th goal as a Panthers