By Canadian Press

Panthers match record, deny Hurricanes one in 5-2 victory

Nov 6, 2021 | 7:18 PM

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers matched the best 11-game start in NHL history and denied the Carolina Hurricanes what would have been a league record-tying start of their own, with Anthony Duclair getting two goals and two assists in a 5-2 victory on Saturday.

Spencer Knight made 28 saves for Florida (10-0-1), which tied the 1994-95 Pittsburgh Penguins and 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres as the only NHL teams to reach 21 points after 11 games.

Carolina (9-1-0) was bidding to join the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs and those ’06-07 Sabres as the lone teams to start a season 10-0-0. The Hurricanes hadn’t trailed by more than two goals in any of their first nine games, but were down 4-0 in the first period against Florida and couldn’t pull off a comeback.

It was the first game in NHL history pitting two teams with season-opening point streaks of at least nine games.

Frank Vatrano, Anton Lundell and Patric Hornqvist also had goals for Florida, which got two assists from Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour.

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Duclair clinched it with an empty-netter with 58.5 seconds left.

The Panthers played without captain Aleksander Barkov, the team’s best player who was a surprise scratch with a lower body injury. They also improved to 3-0-1 in four games under interim coach Andrew Brunette, who took over a week and a half ago following the resignation of Joel Quenneville as part of the fallout from how the Chicago Blackhawks ignored a player’s claims of sexual assault by a video coach in 2010.

Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist for Carolina, and Jesper Fast also scored for the Hurricanes.

Duclair had all three of his points in the first period, sparking Florida’s 4-0 game-opening burst.

Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen was pulled after the first period, having given up four goals on 14 shots. But he returned midway through the second when Antti Raanta had to leave the game following a collision with Florida’s Ryan Lomberg. Raanta came way out of his crease and into the faceoff circle to his left to pursue a loose puck, as Lomberg bore down on him giving chase from the other direction. They collided, Raanta sustained an upper body injury and Lomberg was given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.

Trocheck scored to make it 4-2 with 2:02 left in the major, but the Panthers fended the rest of it off.

It was Andersen’s first loss in nine games this season. He was bidding to join Jack Campbell (11 wins to start 2020-21), Carey Price (10 wins to start 2016-17) and Felix Potvin (nine wins to start 1993-94) as the only goalies to begin a season with nine consecutive victories.

SEEKING 23

Florida will have to win at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers on Monday to match the best 12-game start in NHL history. The 1994-95 Penguins and 2006-07 Sabres were both at 23 points through 12 games.

100 CLUB

The Panthers have an NHL-best 100 points in regular-season games played in 2021 (the calendar year, not the season), two more than Carolina. This is the first time Florida has ever reached 100 points in a year — and 24 games remain before the calendar flips to 2022.

NOTES: Florida was 3 for 35 on the power play against Carolina last season, then went 3 for 4 with the man advantage in the first period alone on Saturday. … Carolina was bidding to be the 50th team from the U.S. major sports leagues — the NHL, NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball — to start 10-0. … The Hurricanes have given up the first goal in six of their 10 games. … Duclair’s three-point (1-2-3) first period matched his most for any period, done on two other occasions.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: Visit Tampa Bay on Tuesday, their first meeting since the Lightning beat the Hurricanes in five games in last season’s playoffs.

Panthers: Visit the Rangers on Monday to start a four-game trip that will also take them to New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press