Aleksander Barkov scored twice and earned an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 40 shots, leading the visiting Florida Panthers to a 6-0 win over the struggling Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
The game was billed as a battle among three of the NHL’s top four point scorers, but they were fairly quiet. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were kept off the scoresheet while Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau got a secondary assist.
Sam Reinhart provided three assists, and Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Duclair, Sam Bennett and Owen Tippett also scored for the Panthers, who sent Edmonton to its seventh straight defeat. The Oilers haven’t won since Dec. 18 and were blanked for the first time since a May playoff game against Winnipeg.
Bobrovsky improved his record to 20-3-3, earning his first shutout since November 2019.
Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves. He hasn’t won since Dec. 1.
The Panthers, who improved to 6-5-5 on the road, played without forward Patric Hornqvist (upper-body injury) and defenseman Gus Forsling (COVID protocol).
Oilers defenseman Kris Russell, who hadn’t played since Dec. 9 due to an upper-body injury, returned. But the Oilers were without Kyle Turris and Dylan Holloway (both on COVID-protocol list) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (lower-body injury).
Edmonton dominated early, earning a 17-7 advantage on shots during a scoreless first period.
Florida got on the board first, following a cross-checking penalty on former Panthers forward Colton Sceviour. Florida’s power play clicked 35 seconds later as Reinhart’s cross-ice pass found Barkov inside the right circle at 5:28. Barkov’s one-timer to the near side beat Koskinen, who couldn’t move over in time.
The Panthers made it 2-0 less than three minutes later as Reinhart earned the primary assist again. This time his pass from behind the goal line found Verhaeghe, whose high blast from the left circle proved unstoppable.
Barkov made it 3-0 with 12:47 left in the third, taking a stretch pass from Radko Gudas and beating Koskinen on the rush from the high slot.
The Panthers poured it on with three more goals: Duclair’s tap-in with 4:20 left, Bennett’s backhander with 3:06 remaining and Tippett’s finale with 1:44 on the clock.
Florida went 3-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-3 on its penalty kill.
–Field Level Media