Panthers waste away another opportunity in loss to Golden Knights, go 2-2 on road trip

The Florida Panthers looked well on their way to capping off a key four-game January road trip with a win over one of the NHL’s top teams.

Instead, they suffered another third-period collapse in their 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

Vegas’ Jack Eichel tied the game with 8:37 on a breakaway and William Carrier gave the Golden Knights their only lead of the game with 2:36 left in regulation. Vegas added an empty-netter to cap scoring.

The Panthers have now been outscored 64-46 in the third period this season.

Nick Cousins and Sam Reinhart scored goals for the Panthers, who went 2-2-0 on this four-game road trip. They beat the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche and also loss to the Dallas Stars over the course of the trip.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 of 32 shots he faced Thursday.

The Panthers are now 19-20-1. Vegas falls to 28-13-2.

How the scoring unfolded

▪ Cousins opened scoring just over two minutes into the game — although it took a lengthy review to determine if the goal would be awarded.

Aaron Ekblad slipped past the Golden Knights defense only for his breakaway shot to hit the low post

Cousins got the rebound on the other side of the net and poked the puck past Vegas goaltender Adin Hill. The goal was immediately waived off, though, because the net was dislodged as Cousins was shooting.

After review, the referees ruled that Vegas defenseman Ben Hutton pushed Florida center Eric Staal into the net, which caused the dislodging, as Cousins was shooting on the other side of the net and awarded Cousins the goal, his fifth of the season.

According to Rule 63.7 in the NHL rule book: “In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the Referee may award a goal. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goalpost being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”

▪ Vegas tied the game 4:08 into the second period when the Panthers turned the puck over in their defensive zone. Keegan Kolesar picked up the puck between Aleksander Barkov and Brandon Montour and sent a drop pass to Nicolas Roy, who got a shot past Bobrovsky.

▪ Reinhart then put Florida back in front with 7:13 left in the second period with a power-play goal off passes from Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. It was Reinhart’s 13th goal of the season.

▪ Jack Eichel tied the game at 2-2 with a goal on a breakaway with 11:22 left in regulation.

▪ Carrier scored the game-winning goal from up close with 2:36 left, with the puck going in after he and Montour collided with Bobrovsky. The Panthers challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal stood because Montour initiated the contact.

▪ William Karlsson added an empty-net goal for Vegas with 1:07 left to play.

Tkachuk through 40 games

With his assist on the Reinhart goal, Tkachuk now has 30 assists and 52 total points through his first 40 games played this season.

He is just the third player in Panthers history to have at least 30 assists in his first 40 games, joining Jonathan Huberdeau (three times; 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 season) and Aleksander Barkov (2019-2020 season).

Up next

The Panthers will return to FLA Live Arena for just one game following this road trip before traveling again.

Florida hosts the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Sunrise. After that, it’s another three-game road trip as part of the team’s travel-heavy January. That next trip consists of a back-to-back against Buffalo at 1 p.m. Monday and the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7 p.m. Tuesday before facing the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Overall, nine of Florida’s 15 January games are on the road and the team does not play more than two consecutive games at a time at FLA Live Arena until after the All-Star Break.