First Shutout of the Season! Florida Panthers Game Recap — Game 30 vs. Nashville Predators:
The Florida Panthers were looking for a bounce-back performance after a bitter 2–1 loss at the hands of the Predators on Thursday night. It was once again the Juuse Saros Show for Nashville, as the young net-minder had yet another fantastic performance in the net. Unfortunately for Saros, the goaltender at the other end of the rink played just a bit better. The Panthers chose to go with Chris Driedger in this afternoon’s matchup, as the Panthers will be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow afternoon likely with Bobrovsky in net. Quenneville is a lucky coach to have a backup goalie with starting caliber skill behind Bobrovsky.
The first period was almost entirely all Panthers. The Panthers out-shot the Predators in the first period a remarkable 22–7. Predators goalie Juuse Saros took over from the very beginning, and the Panthers were really struggling to solve him. Florida had three Power Play opportunities in the first period (two back-to-back coming from a Mathieu Olivier double-minor penalty for roughing Radko Gudas), but they were still unable to score. Saros was standing on his head, and both teams would go into the first intermission without a goal.
Florida would start the second period on the Penalty Kill, as Aleksander Barkov was finishing up serving his penalty from the end of the first period. The Predators would fail to score on their Power Play, and some more back-and-forth action would ensue. About halfway through the second period the Panthers were finally able to get a puck past Saros. At 9:15 of the second period Aleksander Barkov would score his 13th goal of the season, with assists coming from Anthony Duclair and Mackenzie Weegar. Weegar’s assist would extend his point streak to seven games, tying teammate Keith Yandle’s franchise record set in the 2018–19 season for Defensemen.
Aleksander Barkov (13) on the backhand, with assists by Duclair (11) and Weegar (17).
The Panthers would out-shoot the Predators 12–6 in the second period, with Barkov scoring what would ultimately become the game winning goal. They would go into the second intermission leading 1–0.
Throughout the rest of the game I failed to see any sense of urgency from the Predators, as they would be out-shot in the closing period 15–8 despite being down a goal. Nashville would get a couple of Power Play opportunities late in the third period, however they would fail to capitalize on either of them. Nashville would pull Saros to the bench in favor of an extra attacker with a little over 1:30 remaining in the game, however the Panthers would not be denied a victory on this day as Anthony Duclair would score into the empty net to put the Panthers ahead 2–0 with 15 seconds remaining. It was Duclair’s third goal of the season, and Carter Verhaeghe would be credited with an assist on the empty net goal which would be his 12th assist of the season.
Both teams struggled with a man advantage today, as Florida would go 0–5 in their Power Play opportunities, and Nashville would go 0–3 in theirs. Final shot total in this game was 49–21 in favor of the Panthers. Chris Driedger would record his second career shutout, which was also the first shutout of this season for the Panthers in general.
The Three Stars for this afternoon’s game were:
- Aleksander Barkov, C (FLA): 1 Goal (GWG)
- Juuse Saros, G (NSH): 47 saves on 48 shots
- Chris Driedger, G (FLA): 21 saves on 21 shots, W, Shutout
With a win today, the Panthers keep pace with the Lightning to keep the battle for first in the Central Division close. Florida has 44 points through 30 games (good for 2nd in the division), and Tampa has 46 through the same number of games. Florida will hit the road tonight and prepare to take on in-state rival Tampa Bay Lighting tomorrow afternoon, March 21st. That game will start at 4 p.m. ET.
