Sam Bennett had a goal with an assist and Justin Sourdif scored for his first career point as the visiting Florida Panthers beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Gustav Forsling and Mackie Samoskevich also scored, Aleksander Barkov added two assists and Spencer Knight (18 saves) was solid in net for Florida, which has won six of eight. Bennett has four goals and three assists in the last six games.
Michael McCarron scored late for Nashville, which has been outscored 9-1 in losing two straight after winning two in a row. Predators captain Roman Josi did not play in the third period after taking a questionable hit into the boards from Bennett just past the halfway mark of the second.
Florida wasted no time opening the scoring. On the power play, a severe defensive breakdown by the Predators left Sam Reinhart and Bennett alone in front of the Predators’ Juuse Saros (21 saves); Reinhart dropped the puck for Bennett to easily bury 1:23 into the contest.
The Panthers made it 2-0 at 4:21 into the second. Via a give-and-go with Jesper Boqvist, Sourdif roofed the puck past Saros for the milestone in his fourth career game.
Knight, meanwhile, came up big when needed. With roughly 7 ½ minutes remaining in the middle frame, Knight stymied Ryan O’Reilly twice and Fedor Svechkov in succession.
Nashville finally got on the board at 4:30 in the third period. Corralling the rebound of his own net-front shot, McCarron forced the puck past Knight to make it 2-1.
However, the Panthers regained that two-goal advantage with 10:58 remaining. At the half-boards, Forsling flung the puck in the direction of the net, and it appeared to hit the stick of O’Reilly and snuck by an unsuspecting Saros.
After Anton Lundell’s goal was overturned for goaltender interference, Samoskevich converted on a pass from Bennett off a Predators turnover with 4:26 remaining.
Nashville has lost eight of 10.
–Field Level Media
