Panthers Take Down Canucks in Wild 13-Goal Contest

SUNRISE, Fla. — For a brief moment — 30 seconds to be exact — the Vancouver Canucks looked like they were going to run the Florida Panthers out of their own building on Monday night.

By the end of the night, the Panthers escaped with a 8-5 win, and it was escaped because the game saw four lead changes, multiple multi-goal leads blown and 13 total goals.

Vancouver started off on the right foot, jumping out to a 2-0 lead after Drew O’ Connor and Jake DeBrusk scored 24 seconds apart with about five minutes to play in the first period.

That lead was gone before the period was over.

AJ Greer got the Panthers on the board 36 seconds after DeBrusk’s goal, cutting the Canucks lead to 2-1. Seth Jones tied the game with eight seconds remaining in the first frame with his second goal of the season.

”You get down two, you have a decision to make,” Greer said. “Being able to just wipe out whatever happened before that and go on and stay with it, keep the structure going, play to our identity and play hard was important.

“We showed some good resilience to push back.”

Luke Kunin put Florida up 3-2 after he tucked away his first in a Panthers sweater 2:23 into the second, giving them their first lead of the night.

Evan Rodrigues and Anton Lundell both found twine after that with their fifth goals of the season respectively, putting Florida up 5-2.

Despite blowing a two-goal lead, and conceding five unanswered, Elias Pettersson kept his team afloat, scoring two straight to make it a one-goal game.

Less than two minutes after Pettersson made it a 5-4 contest, Filip Horonek tied the game with his first goal of the season to even things up at 5-5.

With just three goals on the season entering Monday’s game, Sam Bennett was in dire need of a bounce to go his way.

After Florida conceded let a three-goal lead slip away, Bennett got the bounce his team needed, deflecting in a Niko Mikkola point-shot to give the Panthers a 6-5 lead with 15:58 to play in regulation.

“You know what, they all care and they all feel it,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice responded when asked about Bennett breaking his cold spell. “He’s been snake-bite a little bit. I think probably the last three-four games especially Sam skated incredibly well, and the good things will happen for him.”

Seth Jones’ goal at the end of the first period was a driving factor in why Florida was able to get back into the game. He doubled his goal total on the night 8:19 into the third, extending the lead to 7-5 with a power-play tally.

Brad Marchand closed the game off with an empty netter, extending his point streak to 11 games.

Florida (10-8-1) will host the New Jersey Devils (13-4-1) on Thursday, Nov  20. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.

PANTHERS NOTES

Cole Schwindt left the game with 6:59 to go in the first period and did not return after colliding with Sergei Bobrovsky. He will see a doctor on Wednesday, but the Panthers don’t expect his timeline to be “short-term”

Defenseman Jeff Perry skated in his 1,000th career NHL game

Sergei Bobrovsky moved into sole possession for ninth most wins (437) in NHL history