Florida Panthers vs. Nashville Predators
Florida Panthers battled the ice rink against Nashville Predators which resulted a 5–4 win at Bridgestone Arena Thursday night. Aaron Ekblad made two goals and two assist during the game giving him an NHL career-high with the cats. Panthers coach Joel Quenneville talks about Ekblad’s performance on nhl.com:
“I thought [Ekblad] had a great game. He did everything right on both ends, terrific goal on the power play that put us in a really good spot. Did a lot of good things. It was one of those nights where he had the magic touch.”
The action started during the first period when Carter Verhaeghe put the panthers on the board with a rebound from the front. Rookie Mason Marchment got his first NHL goal when he made the score 2–0 as he performed a wrist shot from the right of the face-off circle. The forward talks about the moment on nhl.com:
“It was definitely special. I had a good opportunity to score the shift before that too. I tried to go high, and this time just tried to go low. Lucky it went in, and it was an awesome experience.”
Panthers were hot on the ice as the score kept increasing. During the second period, the score become 3–0 as Jonathan Huberdeau put the puck in a slot after the pass from Patric Hornqvist.
Nashville Predators came into the game when Mattis Ekholm made a slap shot from the point. Ekblad scored on the Power-Play and made it 4–1 for the cats at 18:44. Forward Filip Forsberg made it 4–2 for the predators with a redirection. Ekblad scored the 5th and final goal on another power-play at the top slot on a rush in the third period. He talks about the moment on nhl.com:
“We always want [defensemen] in the rush,” Ekblad said. “[Quenneville] is a big believer and pushes us to do that every night. I’ve just been trying to move my feet. I say it to myself before every game, ‘Skate, skate, skate.’ It’s been working this year. I think that’s the basis of it all, just moving my feet and trying to put myself in good positions.”
The Predators began to catch up on the score board as center Colton Sissons made it 5–3. Ryan Johansen gave the team one more goal which changed brought predators one more goal behind the cats 5–4. The team had a goal by Rocco Gramaldi that was overturned. The final score stays 5–4 giving the cat win of the game.
Panther fans on Facebook share their thoughts of the game. Fans loved it, but there are also changes that need to be made for the next game:
“Other than the Poor Face-Off wins 36% (that’s how we got then back into the game giving them puck possession) it was Awesome. Ekblad was amazing for us Lets hope we can repeat that win” said Bobby Dunat
“Good win, not happy with giving up 4 goals” said Scott Gresham
“It is a good win, but I don’t like the closeness towards the end with terrible D” said Anthony M Ott
Florida Panthers played well against Nashville Predators. The cats have another game against the Predators this afternoon. Hopefully, panthers will take over with a BIGGER win. Fan would want that to happen. Below are highlights of Thursday’s game.
