Verhaeghe gets 2 points, Panthers defeat Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist for the Florida Panthers in a 5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Mackie Samoskevich and Tomas Nosek each had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for the Panthers (28-17-3), who have won two in a row for the first time since a four-game winning streak from Dec. 16-22.

"It's good because we haven't been scoring. No matter what, players want to score goals," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "I know it makes you feel good, so everybody that gets a point tonight gets to leave the rink with a win and a point and they get a smile on their face."

Frank Vatrano and Mason McTavish scored, and Lukas Dostal made 24 saves for the Ducks (18-23-6), who have dropped seven of eight (1-5-2).

"We've got to find a way to keep battling," Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. "We've got to battle. You've got to keep playing. You've got to keep battling. It doesn't matter what the score is."

Vatrano finished off a tic-tac-toe play with a one-timer from the right circle while on a power play to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 4:57 of the first period.

Sam Reinhart waited out Dostal before sliding a backhand into the net to tie it 1-1 at 8:58.

Dostal stopped Evan Rodrigues off the rush from the slot, but the rebound came back to Rodrigues and he banked the puck off Dostal's right pad for a 2-1 lead at 17:57.

Florida added to its lead 52 seconds later after the Ducks turned the puck over behind their net and Verhaeghe scored with a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 3-1 at 18:49.

McTavish kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush with Cutter Gauthier and scored from the right circle with 48 seconds left in the first period to cut the lead to 3-2.

"Bouncing puck and just got a nice bounce," McTavish said. "I was going to go to Cutter right away, but the (defense) kind of cheated and just saw some room over the glove and just kind of trusted my instincts."

The Panthers could not take advantage of a 5-on-3 for 43 seconds early in the second period, but maintained the lead heading into the third.

"I thought the second period was great," Cronin said. "We had the puck most of the period, felt there was a lot of momentum going into the third period. I felt really confident. We were skating well in the second and generated some quality chances."

Sam Bennett scored from the left hash marks 19 seconds into the period to make it 4-2, his first goal in 21 games.

"It's always nice to get one, especially when you haven't scored for a while," Bennett said. "Sometimes you feel like one's never going to go in, but you've just got to be patient."

Uvis Balinskis sent a wrist shot past Dostal's blocker through traffic from between the circles and the blue line for the 5-2 final at 4:17.

"I thought the game took some strange turns in the second period," Maurice said. "We get a 5-on-3 and don't score. It became a puck game. We didn't like that, but I like the way we made it 4-2 off a forecheck. That was more like our game. We had like 10 hits through the first two periods, so that's not our target."

Ducks forward Trevor Zegras returned after missing 22 games with a torn meniscus in his right knee and tied for the team lead with four shots on goal in 15:48 of ice time.

"I give a lot of credit to the training staff and the guys behind the scenes that helped me get to that point because it felt pretty seamless," Zegras said.

NOTES: The Panthers are 9-0-1 in their past 10 games against Anaheim. ... Reinhart has scored 18 of his 28 goals on the road, which ties Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers for the most road goals in the NHL. ... Verhaeghe has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games against the Ducks. ... Bobrovsky improved to 5-0-0 against Anaheim since joining Florida prior to the 2019-20 season. ... The Ducks are 17-0-2 when scoring at least three goals this season and 1-23-4 when scoring two or fewer. ... Troy Terry's assist on Vatrano's goal moved him past Scott Niedermayer and Adam Henrique for 10th on the Ducks all-time points list (265).