FLORIDA PANTHERS vs. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
FEB. 11, 2021
BB&T Center – Sunrise, FL
| FLORIDA PANTHERS | TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING |
| 5 | 2 |
- The Panthers improved to 8-1-2 and have won two consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season.
- Aleksander Barkov produced an assist, his 419th NHL point, moving into a tie with Olli Jokinen for second-most points in franchise history.
- Jonathan Huberdeau posted his 300th NHL assist. He is the first Panther in franchise history to reach the 300-assist mark. Huberdeau has posted three assists (0-3-3) over his past two games and leads FLA with 15 points (4-11-15). His 15 points through the team’s first 11 games of a season matches Scott Mellanby (8-7-15 in 11 GP) in 1995-96 for the most in franchise history.
- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 16 shots he faced at even strength, and improved his record to 5-0-1, his best record through his first six games in his career. His season-opening point streak is second to only John Vanbiesbrouck (6-0-3 through 9 GP in 1996- 97) for the longest season-opening goaltending point streak in franchise history.
- Alex Wennberg (1-1-2) tallied a goal for the third consecutive game. He has notched four points (3-1-4) over his past three contests.
- Aaron Ekblad registered two points (1-1-2), including a power-play goal. He has produced three points (1-2-3) over the past two games.
- Carter Verhaeghe scored the game-winning goal against his former club, his team-leading seventh tally of the season.
- Frank Vatrano opened the scoring with his second goal of the season.
- Brett Connolly scored his first goal of the season, an empty-net tally at 19:00 of the third period.
- Patric Hornqvist recorded an assist. He has produced three points (1-2-3) over the past two games.
- Tampa Bay’s 21 total shots on goal are the least allowed by the Panthers in a game this season, and Florida registered a season-high 44 hits and 13 penalty minutes.
- 12 different Panthers registered at least one point.
- This season in the second period the Panthers have 16 total goals for and seven total goals against.
PANTHERS POSTGAME QUOTES – FEB. 11, 2021
Head Coach Joel Quenneville
“I thought it was an excellent game across the board.”
“Obviously, we’re excited about playing and meeting a big challenge today. Next game is going to be a bigger challenge but at the same time the excitement and the purpose behind which we played today was exactly how it had to be in order to be successful.”
“I thought we did what we had to do today, and I really liked the way we had pace to the game and had possession of the puck a lot more.”
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
“It’s definitely a big win for us tonight. We know Tampa Bay is a really good team, a balanced team. We crushed their attacks right in the beginning of the development. It’s definitely a big win for us to keep building the atmosphere in the locker room.”
“Tampa is a really good team, but I thought we played better than them tonight. It’s a well-deserved win for us, two points and we move on.”
Forward Carter Verhaeghe
“It’s always good to know where we stand, but we can’t get complacent.”
“It was fun playing against the old squad. The whole team was buzzing tonight. We were the better team at 5-on-5 tonight, and it showed.”
“The team was playing great, we were moving pucks, shooting pucks, we played a lot in the offensive zone. We played a great game against this team. They were the best team in the league last year for a reason.”
Forward Frank Vatrano
“It was great, especially against a team that’s so talented and has been good for such a long time. We knew we had to start out on the right foot. We had to take the game to them, we can’t wait around and feed into the transition game that they want to play. We need to play hard-nosed hockey we did that for a full 60.”
“They’re a team we’re going to be seeing eight times so we have to play every game like that against them.”
“I think the big thing for us is that we’ve been mostly consistent every single night no matter who our competition is. Every game is a division game, so every game is important…It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’ve got to come out to play like a playoff game.”
“He’s [forward Alex Wennberg] a great player, a smart two-way player who can make some great plays and now he’s scoring goals. Sometimes that’s all it takes is to get that first one and you keep rolling with it. Even when he wasn’t scoring he was still doing the little things right, he’s very reliable defensively.”
