Strong outing by Spencer Knight helps Panthers to 2-1 shootout victory in New Jersey

The Florida Panthers wrapped up their latest road trip on Tuesday night in New Jersey.

After falling on Monday night to the Philadelphia Flyers, Florida dug deep and earned a gutsy 2-1 shootout win over the Devils, thanks in large part to a great game between the pipes by Spencer Knight.

Considering their recent struggles, it wasn’t surprising to see Florida start the game with some new-look forward lines, as both Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk lines up with Sasha Barkov on the top unit while Mackie Samoskevich moved up to the second line with Sam Bennett and Eetu Luostarinen.

Carter Verhaeghe and A.J. Greer flanked Anton Lundell on the third line while Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist skated with Tomas Nosek on the fourth line.

The new combinations didn’t do much to spark Florida’s offense though, as the Panthers and Devils played a scoreless first period in which they combined for just 11 shots on goal.

Knight made a big breakaway save on Nico Hischier with just under eight minutes to go in the middle frame, his fourth high danger save of the game at the time.

It took until the third period for the scoring to finally get going, and it was the visitors who cracked the ice.

Carter Verhaeghe made a nice play with the puck at the Devils blue line, delaying just long enough to allow his linemates a chance to get into the zone.

Verhaeghe then made a nice cross-ice pass to Jesper Boqvist, who fired a shot against the grain, beating Jacob Markstrom along the ice to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the 41 second mark of the final frame.

Hischier tied the game less than two minutes later on a shot that deflected off the stick of Florida defenseman Gus Forsling and past Knight.

Florida’s goaltender continued to come up huge, making back-to-back tough saves on Tomas Tatar and Paul Cotter with just under five minutes left in the third.

Both goaltenders continued to stand tall, particularly Knight down the stretch and through overtime, and the game would require more than 65 minutes.

Goals by Sasha Barkov and Anton Lundell, and a pair of saves by Knight, would get the Panthers the bonus point in the shootout.

On to the Red Wings.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Boqvist has racked up six goals and nine points over his past 11 games.

After going 18 consecutive games without a point, Nate Schmidt has picked up assists two nights in a row.

Florida is now 5-1-0 on second night of back-to-back sets.

Knight finished with 25 saves, including 7 of the high danger variety.

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