Reinhart's power-play double can't save Panthers in 5-3 Buffalo loss
Florida tied it three times, then took one penalty too many as Ostlund and Thompson finished it in the third.
Sabres 5, Panthers 3. The power play finally showed up in Buffalo, and the penalty kill didn't, so the cats lose a road game they tied three separate times.
How it went
Josh Doan opened the scoring at 5:58 of the first, and Anton Lundell answered at 11:00, set up by Aaron Ekblad and Sandis Vilmanis. Then the penalty box became the story. Dmitry Kulikov went off for holding, and Rasmus Dahlin scored on the power play 40 seconds later.
Jacob Markstrom stopped nine of 11 in the first and didn't come back, so Akira Schmid took the net to start the second. Buffalo outshot Florida 32-23, an accurate reflection of the afternoon.
Sam Reinhart made it 2-2 on the power play at 6:26, and Buffalo yanked Colten Ellis for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Ryan McLeod put the Sabres back up at 11:25, and Reinhart tied it again on the power play at 13:41, with Brady Tkachuk and Seth Jones on the assists.
The third period is where the afternoon unraveled. Ekblad took his second minor of the day, a holding-the-stick call, and Noah Ostlund scored on the power play at 7:15. Tage Thompson made it 5-3 at 13:20.
Three things from Buffalo:
1. The power play woke up. Florida went 2-for-4, with both goals off Reinhart's stick, from a power play that was converting at 3.6 percent coming in, per NHL data. Reinhart had zero points through five games, by our count, and two goals in one afternoon is a decent way to answer that.
2. Five minors is too many. Two of them turned into Buffalo goals, and both came after a Florida hold. Ekblad alone sat for four minutes. You can't kill your way out of a road game when you hand a desperate home team five opportunities.
3. The minutes tell you who's carrying this. Gustav Forsling played 24:10, nearly six minutes more than he got against Minnesota on Saturday, per NHL data. Jones played 23:55. With Barkov and Marchand both out, Maurice is leaning heavily on the same few veterans, and that bill usually comes due in a back-to-back.
Ferda play of the night:
Brady Tkachuk, who threw seven hits, the most on the team, and made the first pass on Reinhart's tying goal in the second. That assist is his first point of the season, by our count. He doesn't score pretty, but he relentlessly makes the other team pay rent on every board battle, and that's a ferda shift every time.
Matthew Tkachuk had the second assist on the first Reinhart goal. That's five straight games with a point, by our count.
What they said
Maurice said something "tightened up" on Markstrom, so the staff pulled him after one period.
"There's no injury there," Maurice said. "There's nothing we can't deal with. Just standard stuff."
Pabs' read
This one's on discipline, not effort or energy. I've watched this team since the first season, and the good versions never beat anybody from the penalty box, regardless of the opponent. The power play gives you hope, but five minors on the road gives you a 5-3 loss.
Schmid stopped 18 of 21 in relief and did his job, and he's expected to start in Columbus. The bigger worry isn't the goalie. It's a depleted lineup missing two of its best players and two defensemen at 24 minutes with the second half of a back-to-back tomorrow.
Next game
The cats go straight to Columbus for the second half of the back-to-back, with puck drop Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. ET at Nationwide Arena on Scripps. Then it's home to Sunrise for Vancouver on Thursday.
