Sam Reinhart scored twice and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Monday night in Newark, N.J.
The Devils trailed 4-0 before scoring three unanswered third-period goals. But Florida held on for the win.
Carter Verhaeghe and Niko Mikkola also scored for the Panthers, who earned their first victory of the season. The Panthers, who will play their home opener on Thursday against Toronto, finished their road trip 1-2-0.
Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk had a game-high two assists.
Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves for the Devils, who lost their second straight game. Erik Haula, Michael McLeod and Jesper Bratt scored for New Jersey. Haula and Bratt each added an assist.
Devils star Jack Hughes finished with one assist.
The Panthers played without three of their top players due to injuries — forward Sam Bennett and defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour.
However, Panthers forward Justin Sourdif, a 21-year-old Canadian, made his NHL debut. Sourdif, Florida’s third-round pick in 2020, did not get a point.
Florida opened the scoring at the 3:54 mark of the first period. Aleksander Barkov won a board battle and got the puck to Evan Rodrigues, whose shot was deflected in by Reinhart. Rodrigues had a career-high four points in Florida’s previous game.
The Panthers made it 2-0 with 13:12 gone in the first on a play started by Tkachuk’s long stretch pass. Verhaeghe controlled the bouncing puck and flipped in a backhander over Vanecek.
Florida extended its lead to 3-0 with 11:18 elapsed in the second as Tkachuk centered the puck to Mikkola, who scored on the redirect.
The Panthers made it 4-0 with just 59 seconds gone in the third as Reinhart scored on another deflection, this time on the power play. Oliver Ekman-Larsson earned the primary assist.
New Jersey finally got on the board with 16:25 left on Haula’s deflection of Hughes’ shot, also on a power play.
With 11:09 remaining, McLeod pushed the puck in at the left post, beating Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to cut New Jersey’s deficit to 4-2. Haula had the primary assist.
The Devils closed to 4-3 on Bratt’s power-play goal with 2:23 left. The Devils also pulled their goalie during that sequence to give them an extra attacker.
–Field Level Media
