Panthers pull away from Blackhawks with 4 goals in 3rd

CHICAGO -- Tobias Bjornfot scored twice for the Florida Panthers, who pulled away from the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period for a 5-1 win at United Center on Sunday.

It was the first multigoal NHL game for Bjornfot, who was playing in just his fifth game of the season. He entered the night with one goal in 138 career games, with that one coming on May 1, 2021, for the Los Angeles Kings.

“It felt so good,” Bjornfot said. “It’s been a while since my first one. [My teammates] were obviously happy for me. They thought that was my first goal. It was nice to get one.”

Mackie Samoskevich, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 19 saves for the Panthers (28-20-3), who have won three in a row, including a 4-3 overtime victory at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, and six of eight. Gustav Forsling and Evan Rodrigues each had two assists.

“It’s been a pretty good trip for us,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice, whose team opened its three-game road trip with a 2-1 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. “We’ve played some of our worst hockey in this building, and we won tonight. So, impressed with the group. ... We got to the hotel (in Chicago) at 3:30 in the morning, and then it’s a 6 o’clock start. It’s got all the reasons you should get the doors blown off you, but really patient, really hard and smart.”

Spencer Knight made 20 saves for the Blackhawks (21-23-8), who were 2-0-1 in their previous three games.

“Our thirds have actually been our better periods,” Chicago captain Nick Foligno said. “Especially against a team that just played a tough schedule, they get in real late and all the excuses, we've just got to find a way to get that job done. That's the hard part. Tonight was one of those games where you feel like you beat yourself. Just the goals that we gave up were breakdowns in the way we normally know how to play. That really hasn't been the case for a while here, so it's disappointing.”

Bjornfot gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 15:33 of the second period following a face-off win by Cole Schwindt. Bjornfot skated into the puck along the left boards, circled the net and tucked in a wraparound at the right post.

“I just kept skating down,” Bjornfot said. “I didn’t know who was in the slot. I was thinking to pass it to him, then he wasn’t open and I (thought) just take it to the net. And then it went well.”

Tyler Bertuzzi tied it 1-1 at 19:30. Wyatt Kaiser kept the puck in at the blue line and passed across to Ilya Mikheyev, who quickly sent the puck toward the net, where Bertuzzi brought it to his forehand and scored into the open net.

Samoskevich put the Panthers back in front 2-1 at 5:20 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle that trickled over the goal line under the blocker arm of Knight.

Verhaeghe then made it 3-1 at 7:24 with a one-timer from the edge of the left circle off a short pass from Rodrigues.

“We really showed some poise and some character,” Forsling said. “It’s not easy flying in, coming in late, reload. It’s never easy. I think we showed some real character.”

Reinhart shot into an empty net to make it 4-1 at 18:11, and Bjornfot scored his second of the game at 19:38 for the 5-1 final.

“We see those guys work so hard every day,” Maurice said. “There’s not a lot of payoff for a guy like 'Toby.' He’s not going to score a lot of goals in his career. He’ll remember the night he scored two.

“What impresses me about Toby is how hard he works on the days when he’s out of the lineup, just to stay ready, to stay right. Everybody needs a good day every once in a while. He’s not here to score goals. [He got] two. He’ll never forget tonight, and we’re really happy for him.”

Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard was minus-3 in 17:41 of ice time. He has four points (one goal, three assists) in eight games since returning on Jan. 9 from an upper-body injury that caused him to miss 12 games.

“Yeah, I think he’d be the first to tell you, since he’s been back, I think there have been moments when he’s going good and moments where he hasn’t,” Chicago coach Jeff Blashill said. “That’s the ebb and flow of reality at times of the year. That’s what happens with guys sometimes. You’re out a long time, and it’s hard to get your mojo back sometimes. He’s just working his mojo back. We’ve got to play with the lines. Maybe that’s hurt him, not having consistency there.”

NOTES: Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen missed his sixth straight game because of an upper-body injury. He took part in the morning skate wearing a noncontact jersey. He is expected to practice on Monday, and Blashill said he is getting “closer” to returning.