Spencer Knight made 45 saves as the Florida Panthers continued their perfect home record this season, defeating the New Jersey Devils, 4-1, on Thursday night. But it wasn’t a good night for his counterpart, Mackenzie Blackwood.
Blackwood allowed four goals and was pulled in the second period. He made 23 stops before he was replaced by Jonathan Bernier.
New Jersey got its goal from Dougie Hamilton, his fourth tally in six games.
“We had a lot of chances, a lot of shots on goal, the puck just didn’t go in,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said.
Hamilton’s shot off the post went in on the short side to give the Devils a 1-0 lead at 13:37 of the first, but the Panthers answered on the goal by Carter Verhaeghe with 6.4 seconds left in the period.
“We had one of the fastest periods we’ve had all year,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “We could have had three goals in the first 10 minutes. If you don’t take advantage of those situations, we let a team hang around.”
As or the Panthers, they are 9-0-0 at the BB&T Center this season, and the NHL record is 11 straight home wins to start a year. Dating to last season, the Panthers have won 13 straight home games and 20 of 21 overall.
Jonathan Huberdeau (11) and Anthony Duclair (10) scored the Panthers’ third and fourth goals to seal Florida’s 4-1 win over the Devils Thursday. APKnight said he relished the heavy workload.
“Any goalie will tell you it’s more fun when you face more shots,” Knight said after the win.
The Panthers on Thursday were without Aleksander Barkov, their first-line center, captain and leading scorer who injured his knee in Florida’s previous game.
Without Barkov, who is listed as week-to-week, the Panthers got one goal each from Verhaeghe, Eetu Luostarinen, Jonathan Huberdeau and Anthony Duclair.
New Jersey opened the scoring with 13:37 left in the first. After Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar lost his stick, New Jersey’s Jimmy Vesey passed back to Hamilton, who squeezed the puck past Knight, banging it in off the (near) right post.
Florida tied the score with just seven seconds left in the first. Weegar got the assist, but Verhaeghe did almost all of the work. He carried the puck from his own zone all the way to the top of the left circle, where he ripped in a shot off the right post.
The Panthers took a 2-1 lead with 3:08 gone in the second on Luostarinen’s rebound.
With 4:25 expired in the second, the Panthers took a 3-1 lead as Huberdeau blasted the puck over Blackwood’s glove on a play that started with Weegar’s puck-separating hit.
The Devils challenged the play, and even the Panthers broadcasters thought Huberdeau was clearly offsides. However, the officials saw it differently — the goal stood, and the Panthers also got a power play.
Florida didn’t score with the man advantage, but the Panthers went up 4-1 less than four minutes later as Duclair corralled a bouncing pass from Huberdeau and then scored from in close.
That goal — with 8:15 expired in the second — sent Blackwood to the showers.
