SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers survived a grueling road trip by splitting four games out west. Now, back in Sunrise, they’re ready to start stacking some wins in front of one of the NHL’s best home-ice advantages.
Their win Wednesday was an ideal starting point. The Panthers scored early on a rebound goal by Nick Cousins and held onto the narrow lead the entire way before finally breaking through on the power play to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0.
The shutout for goaltender Spencer Knight was the third of his still-young NHL career.
Florida (8-5-1) will now play four more in a row at home, then go on the road for one game before returning to Broward County for two more. After playing 9 of 13 on the road to start the year, the Panthers have a prime opportunity to make up some ground in November.
A year ago, they boasted the best home-ice advantage in the NHL, winning 34 of 41 in South Florida, and they started the 2022-23 NHL season off similarly by winning 3 of 4 at home — and earning points in all four — to start the year.
Although it was a relatively sparse crowd at FLA Live Arena because of Hurricane Nicole, the Panthers still kept up the trend by beating a Stanley Cup hopeful in Florida.
Cousins scored his first goal as a Panther with 10:19 left in the first period and it was alone was enough to win, but Aleksander Barkov gave Florida another boost with 9:40 remaining when he scored a power-play goal off a beautiful feed by fellow forward Carter Verhaeghe.
The goal came on the Panthers’ fourth power play and brings them up to 6 of 25 in their last seven games — a drastic improvement from their 2-for-23 start to the year.
The 24% mark Florida has posted in its last seven would’ve ranked in the top 10 of the league across the full 2021-22 NHL season.
Forward Sam Bennett added an empty-net goal with six seconds remaining.
Knight preserved his shutout with one final stretch of heroics in the third period. Carolina (8-4-1) got one final power play with 6:18 left, won the opening faceoff and immediately peppered Knight with three shots in 13 seconds. He denied the initial attempt, slid to his left to stop another and wound up on his back to knock the final shot away.
They were the only shots the Hurricanes got on their final power play and the Panthers finished off their first shutout win of the year.
