Early in the third period Saturday, the Florida Panthers maneuvered around a pair of penalties called against them within a 14-second span. They held the Buffalo Sabres scoreless for 1:23 while Buffalo played with a 4-on-3 advantage, then 21 seconds with the Sabres playing 5-on-3, and then 14 more seconds with Buffalo playing 5-on-4 to preserve a one-goal lead.
This came one period after the Panthers’ power play finally came to life, with Florida scoring two goals on the man advantage to take a lead for good.
Make no doubt about it: The Panthers’ performance on special teams was critical in a 4-3 win over the Sabres at KeyBank Center.
“We need those to get those to an elite level to have success,” said star center and team captain Aleksander Barkov, a key part of both sides of the Panthers’ special teams.
And considering there were a dozen penalties called — seven against Buffalo, five against Florida — the Panthers needed their power play and penalty kill to make an impact.
The power play finally broke through in the second period.
After Florida (2-0-0) failed to score on all five of its power play chances in its season-opening win against the New York Islanders on Thursday and coming up empty on its first chance Saturday, Aaron Ekblad took a pass from Barkov on the right side, skated his way to the left circle and fired a shot past Sabres goaltender Eric Comrie to give Florida a 3-2 lead.
About 15 minutes later, Brandon Montour added a power-play goal of his own after corralling a rebound from a Matthew Tkachuk shot attempt and flicking a wrist shot past Comrie to put Florida up 4-2.
Florida amassed 13 scoring chances over its six power plays on Saturday. Buffalo (1-1-0), meanwhile, was held scoreless on its four power plays and had just two scoring chances when having an extra skater.
“Just playing with speed like we do in the five-on-five game, and that’s kind of the mindset we want to have,” Ekblad said. “Attack the net and give up nothing.”
Colin White and Tkachuk also scored goals in the first period, while Spencer Knight stopped 24 of 27 shots that came his way, including one in which he sprawled to his left to stop a Jeff Skinner wrist shot shortly after Ekblad’s second-period goal.
The Panthers end their three-game road trip to open the season on Monday against the Boston Bruins. After that, they play three games at home next week: Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, Friday against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Oct. 23 against the Islanders.
This and that
— White’s first-period goal, a snap shot from the slot, was his first goal with the Panthers and the 100th point of his NHL career.
— Barkov and Tkachuk both finished with two points.
— Florida out-shot Buffalo 37-27 on Saturday and held the Sabres to just five shots on goal in the final period.
— Knight is now 4-0-0 all-time against Buffalo.
