Andreas Johnsson scored twice and the New Jersey Devils ended the game by scoring five unanswered goals Tuesday night as they beat the visiting Florida Panthers, 7-3, in Newark, N.J.
Nico Hischier, P.K. Subban, Pavel Zacha, Ty Smith and Jimmy Vesey also scored for the Devils, who have won two straight. New Jersey goalie Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves.
Sam Bennett, Aleksander Barkov and Owen Tippett scored for the Panthers, who lost both ends of a back-to-back after opening the season 10-0-1. Florida fell to the New York Rangers 4-3 on Monday.
Florida goalie Spencer Knight recorded 24 saves on Tuesday.
The Panthers took a quick lead when Bennett put back the rebound of his own wraparound attempt at the 3:53 mark of the first period.
The Devils tied the score and took the lead in a 119-second span late in the opening period. Johnsson put back the rebound of Jasper Bratt’s point-blank shot on a power play with 4:14 left before Hischier redirected Smith’s shot from just behind the left faceoff circle.
The Panthers returned the favor in the first 1:29 of the third. Barkov collected a milestone goal just 24 seconds after faceoff when he put back the rebound of a shot by Carter Verhaeghe. The goal was the 189th of Barkov’s career, breaking a tie with Olli Jokinen for the most in franchise history.
The Panthers went ahead again when Tippett barreled into the crease, and in one motion, took a pass from Gustav Forsling and beat Blackwood from point-blank range.
The Devils tied the game on a three-on-two rush just 29 seconds later when Johnsson and Dawson Mercer exchanged the puck before Johnsson scored.
Subban gave New Jersey the lead for good with 1:45 left in the second when his shot from just behind the slot ticked off Florida’s Sam Reinhart and sailed past Knight.
The Devils turned the game into a rout by scoring twice in a 29-second span early in the third. Zacha capped a power play by scoring off the rebound of a close-range shot by Hischier at the 4:44 mark. After a faceoff win, Smith fired a shot beyond the glove of a screened Knight.
The Panthers pulled Knight with more than four minutes left, but Vesey’s empty-netter with 3:49 left ended any hopes Florida had of a comeback.
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–Field Level Media