Hockey Returns
Florida Panthers got back on the ice Thursday night October 14 against Pittsburgh Penguins winning 5–4 in overtime. This is a nice start to the season and fans are happy with the result hoping the cats get a second game with New York Islanders on the weekend.
The cats won their season opener when Center Carter Verhaeghe put the puck into the net from the left face-off circle during the overtime. He talked about game on nhl.com:
“It wasn’t the way we kind of drew it up, but we’ll take the win. We’ve got a lot of things to work on still. It’s the first game. So we’ll take the two points and move on.”
During the third period, Aaron Ekblad scored twice putting the cats and penguins to a tie. Panther captain Aleksander Barkov made two assists and Goaltender Bobrovsky 43 saves for the cats.
Ekblad scored goals 1:38 after Rodrigues put the Penguins at a 4–2 lead in the third period at 8:31. One of Ekblad’s goals was a shot into an open net with DeSmith blocked by a froth in the crease and made the score 4–3 at 13: 29, then performing a backhand off the crossbar to tie the score 4–4 at 15:07. Ekblad talked about the game and gives the team a special nickname on nhl.com:
“Crazy game, pretty wild. Resilient team. I only say ‘Comeback Cats’ because we’ve done it quite a few times in the last few years. We live on that mantra.”
The action took off when Carter Verhaeghe performed a wrist shot above the right-faceoff circle then Anthony Declair made it 2–0 for the cats with a restricted breakaway at 3:57 during the second period. Danton Heinen put the penguins on the board 2–1 with a powerplay goal at 11:45. Jeff Carter made it 2–2 as he scored on a power play with 1:02 remaining in the second. This was Carter’s 400th NHL goal. He talked about making goals on nhl.com:
“I’ve scored a lot of those goals. “You put it on net, a lot of times, something happens. So take them any way they can come. Hopefully I can hang around to score a lot more of them.”
Fans on Facebook were happy and excited about the first winning game of the season:
“Feels awesome!” said Dan Harrell
“Feels good to get the first win on opening night! Another tough matchup tonight. If Ek plays as good as game one, we should start off 2–0” said Michael Glen Tremayne
“Outstanding!!!!” said Jared Everetts
“Another W tonight, will be like an extra scoop of vanilla Ice cream, on a Grande vanilla cone, awesome!!!” said Rod Rick
Florida Panthers start the season in a positive light winning the first game against Pittsburgh Penguins is a sign of success this season. This seemed like a tough game, but a good one for the cats hopefully the team will have a positive hockey season. Below are highlights of the game:
