Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight stopped all 20 shots he faced as Florida demolished the Carolina Hurricanes 6-0 in Sunrise, Fla., to complete the home-and-home sweep.
After taking down the Hurricanes 6-3 in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday, the Panthers returned home and their offense continued to dominate.
Aaron Ekblad, Mackie Samoskevich, Sam Bennett, Aleksander Barkov, Adam Boqvist and Evan Rodrigues each scored for the Panthers.
Hurricanes netminder Spencer Martin allowed five goals on 28 shots before being relieved in the third period en route to his second loss to Florida in as many days.
Hurricanes top scorer Martin Necas failed to record a goal for the third consecutive game despite a pair of partial breakaway opportunities in the first period.
At 14:20 of the opening frame, Necas sprung loose, but Knight got his blocker in the way of the sniper’s wrist shot.
The Hurricanes’ superstar had another chance at 7:34 of the first period as he flew down the wing, but Knight again turned the shot aside.
The Panthers thought they broke the deadlock less than three minutes into the second period, but Anton Lundell’s goal was taken off the board after the play was ruled offside following a challenge from the Hurricanes.
At 13:18 of the second period, Ekblad took advantage of an out-of-position Martin as he scored the game’s opening goal and his first of the season.
The Panthers extended their lead to 2-0 with less than one second remaining in the second period, as Samoskevich finished a beautiful piece of passing.
Just more than eight minutes into the third period, Bennett scored his third goal in as many games after Eetu Luostarinen stole the puck and fed him out front.
The Panthers then struck 11 seconds apart as Barkov scored on the power play, followed by Boqvist’s goal with 8:12 left in the game to chase Martin from the net. Yaniv Perets came on in relief.
Rodrigues then tipped the third shot Perets faced past him for another Panthers power-play goal.
–Field Level Media
