Panthers’ Tkachuk spent lengthy stretch in the penalty box vs Penguins. Then he made his mark

Matthew Tkachuk had plenty of time to wait for his moment. The Florida Panthers’ star winger was stuck in the penalty box for more than 12 minutes, spanning the final 5:22 of the second period and spilling over to the first seven minutes of the third period for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a 10-minute misconduct stemming from a scrum in the Panthers’ offensive zone.

“I was pretty surprised, to be honest with you,” Tkachuk said of the penalties. “I guess I just had to go to the box and sit for a while.”

Once Tkachuk was finally free from the box with 13:03 left in regulation and the game tied against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he made his mark known. He scored on his first shift back, tipping in a Carter Verhaeghe shot on the power play to help Florida to a 3-2 shootout win on Friday at Amerant Bank Arena.

“He was fresh,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He got to rest a little bit. A big goal for us, for sure.”

Added forward Sam Reinhart: “To be able to come out and put a stamp on the game is something that he’s one of the best in the world at.”

But it had been a while since Tkachuk had made an impact on a game. The goal was Tkachuk’s 14th of the season but his first since Dec. 18, snapping a six-game scoring drought.

It also gave Tkachuk a little bit of redemption after he played a role in Florida surrendering the go-ahead goal one night earlier against the Carolina Hurricanes.

And it backed up a stellar performance in net by Spencer Knight, who stopped 29 of 31 shots he faced, including all 21 at even strength.

Defenseman Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida, tallying his sixth goal of the season on a wrist shot from beyond the right circle 36 seconds into the second period to give Florida a 1-0 lead.

But the Penguins scored a pair of power play goals — first by Sidney Crosby with 8:51 left in the second period and then by Rickard Rakell with 39.9 seconds left in regulation — to force overtime.

Knight and Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry traded big saves in the five-minute extra period — each made three saves in the three-on-three format — to send the game to the shootout. Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored for Florida in the shootout while Knight denied both Rakell and Crosby to seal the win, Florida’s sixth in its past nine games and fifth in that span decided by either one goal or two goals with the insurance goal being an empty-netter.

“The guys did a great job,” Tkachuk said. “It was a tight game. We’ve been in a few of them as of late, and on a back-to-back, we knew it was going to be that way. They’ve been here for a few days, so I just thought it was a good effort. We would like to close it out there in the third, but it took a few extra minutes and some great goals and some great saves in the shootout.”

▪ Panthers Sam Bennett on Saturday was fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, for roughing Penguins forward Drew O’Connor late in the third period on Friday. That penalty led to the power play on which Pittsburgh scored its game-tying goal to force overtime.