RECAP: Panthers 8, Canucks 5

SUNRISE, Fla. – If you attended tonight’s game, there’s a good chance even you got a point.

In a back-and-forth thriller, the Florida Panthers put on a show for their fans during an entertaining 8-5 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

Spreading out the offense, a franchise-record 16 different players recorded a point for the Panthers.

“Everyone was stepping up,” forward Sam Bennett said. “A lot of different lines contributing on offense. When they went ahead by two [goals], we showed a lot of resilience and stayed with it.”

With the win, the Panthers improve to 10-8-1 and now sit just three points out of first place in the Atlantic Division with two games in hand on the Boston Bruins.

“We got better as the game went on,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We thought we were late on a lot of our forecheck and pressure in our last game, and I thought that was our strength tonight.”

With a laundry list of players already sidelined by injuries, the Panthers lost forward Cole Schwindt early in the first period when he collided with Sergei Bobrovsky while chasing down a puck.

Schwindt left the ice in pain and did not return.

“He’ll see a doctor on Wednesday,” Maurice said. “It’s not going to be short-term.”

Despite the Panthers being seemingly in control for much of the first period, the Canucks struck first when Drew O’Connor pushed the puck out from under Bobrovsky to make it 1-0 at 14:50.

Earning a power play soon after, the Canucks immediately doubled their lead when Jake DeBrusk re-directed a shot into the cage from the right doorstep to make it 2-0 at 15:14.

But less than a minute later, A.J. Greer answered for the Panthers when he took a pass from Carter Verhaeghe and beat Jiri Patera with a snipe from the high slot to make it 2-1 at 15:50.

“You get down two, you’ve got 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 is important. We showed some good resiliency.”

On the power play, the Panthers managed to even the score before the first intermission when Seth Jones went from one end of the ice to the other and finished off a beautiful give-and-go with Sam Reinhart by burying a shot from the right circle to make it 2-2 at 19:52.

In control for much of the first period, the Panthers allowed just five shots on goal.

Losing another player early in the second period, Mackie Samoskevich threw down his stick and shot down the tunnel after being hit in the arm area by a friendly slap shot.

Thankfully, the young sniper returned to action later in the period.

Netting his first goal as a Panther, Luke Kunin followed up on a shot from Noah Gregor and sent the ensuing rebound into the back of Vancouver’s cage to make it 3-2 at 2:23.

"It's always nice whenever you can help and contribute," Kunin said. "That one felt good."

Keeping their foot on the gas, the Panthers then struck twice in rapid succession.

After Evan Rodrigues potted a filthy no-look feed from Reinhart to increase the lead to 4-2 at 6:10, Anton Lundell picked a corner from the right circle to suddenly make it 5-2 at 7:17.

With the secondary assist, Brad Marchand recorded a point in his 11^th straight game.

Putting a stop to the scoring spree for the Panthers, Elias Pettersson touched the twine on a 2-on-1 rush to trim Vancouver’s deficit to 5-3 at 7:55.

Adding another goal early in the third period, Pettersson went to the net and backhanded a shot over Bobrovsky’s glove to make it 5-4 at 1:24. Closing the gap for the Canucks less than two minutes later, Filip Hronek buried a goal on the power play to make it 5-5 at 3:14.

That tie, however, would be short-lived. Just 48 seconds later Sam Bennett tipped a perfect slap pass from Niko Mikkola right past Patera to put the Panthers back on top 6-5 at 4:02.

“It’s a great play,” Bennett said. “It’s exactly what I had in mind. He read my mind.”

Earning the 10^th multi-goal game of his career, Jones gave the Panthers some breathing room when he finished off a silky-smooth passing sequence by absolutely blasting home a nifty centering pass from Reinhart to bring the score to an eye-popping 7-5 at 8:19.

Icing the game, Marchand scored on the empty net to extend the lead to 8-5 at 18:14.

An historic night on offense, the Panthers scored at least eight goals for the 16^th time in their history.

“I thought the energy came with a little bit of goal scoring,” Maurice said. “We’ve been looking for it, the positive feeling when good things happen for them. They were wired into the game right.”

THEY SAID IT

“That’s what you want to see from your team, responding when things aren’t going your way or they get a good bounce. We responded well and capitalized when we needed to.” – Sam Bennett

“Confidence is such a big part of what we do.” – Paul Maurice

“When we’ve got a lot of guys on the scoresheet, it’s a good confidence booster for everyone. It means a lot of guys are doing good things out there.” – A.J. Greer

CATS STATS

- Jeff Petry skated in his 1,000^th career NHL game.

- Sergei Bobrovsky earned the 438^th win of his career, surpassing Jacques Plante (437) for sole possession of the ninth most career wins among NHL goaltenders.

- Brad Marchand has scored 10 goals in his last 10 games.

- The Panthers earned their first multi-goal comeback of the season.

- Sam Reinhart recorded his 24^th career three-point game with Florida.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will look to keep the goals flowing when they host the New Jersey Devils at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.