The Florida Panthers were off from the start and fell short against the NHL’s worst team.
Wrapping up their brief two-game road trip, the Panthers never looked like their usual, aggressive selves and lose to the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 Thursday night at United Center.
An interference penalty on Niko Mikkola in the game’s opening minutes led to the home team getting on the scoreboard first.
Tyler Bertuzzi tried jamming the puck past Spencer Knight at the side of the net, and his rebound came out the opposite side of the crease where Teuvo Teravainen had a wide-open net.
Midway through the opening period when the game was in a TV timeout, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice could be seen giving it to his players, apparently unhappy with their effort so far against the Blackhawks.
While shots and shot attempts were close to even at the time of the motivational talk, by the time the period was over, Florida had the edge in both, leading in shots 8-7 and in shot attempts 22-11.
The score, however, remained the same.
That was until about midway through the middle frame, with Craig Smith getting behind the Panthers defenders and scoring on a breakaway to make it 2-0 Chicago.
Just over 30 seconds later, Sam Reinhart got the Cats on the board with an outside wrist shot that beat a screened Petr Mrazek.
From that point on, Mrazek was brilliant between the pipes, making several high-danger saves during the game’s final frame to give the Blackhawks a rare victory.
On to the Avalanche.
QUICK THOUGHTS
It’s now a 12-game point streak for Reinhart. He’s racked up 10 goals and 18 points during the run.
Reinhart is also up to 15 goals through his first 20 games this season.
Sasha Barkov went 15-for-17 in the faceoff circle against Chicago after going 16-for-18 on Tuesday in Winnipeg.
Mrazek stopped all eight of Florida’s high danger shots.
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