Early deficit insurmountable as Panthers fall to unbeaten Hurricanes
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Ryan Dzingel and the Carolina Hurricanes are off to a perfect start.
Dzingel scored two goals and the Hurricanes beat the Florida Panthers 6-3 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight victory to begin the season, equaling the best run in franchise history.
Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Staal each had a goal and an assist for Carolina, which scored four times in the first period and opened a 5-0 lead after 21½ minutes.
"The start was great. Really, that's where the game was won for us," coach Rod Brind'Amour said.
Dougie Hamilton also scored for Carolina, and Sebastian Aho added an empty-net goal. James Reimer stopped 47 shots against the team that traded him last summer.
Andrei Svechnikov and Haydn Fleury each had two assists as the Hurricanes matched the 4-0-0 start by the Hartford Whalers in 1995-96, before the club moved to Carolina.
Evgenii Dadonov, Keith Yandle and MacKenzie Weegar scored for the Panthers. Aleksander Barkov had two assists.
Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 14 shots before being replaced by Sam Montembeault to start the second period. Montembeault finished with 19 saves.
Dzingel's second goal extended Carolina's lead to 5-0 at 1:31 of the second.
"Some of those goals were self-inflicted," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "When you're down one or two goals at home it hurts and it's got to bother you and you've got to get excited about it. I didn't like our response."
Reimer faced 40 shots over the last two periods as the Panthers scored three times.
"You're just willing yourself to make saves and hang in there and try and stay square and hope they hit you," Reimer said. "Our guys had some huge blocks there at the end and it was fun to be a part of."
Florida got on the board when Weegar flipped in a loose puck from in front at 3:51.
Yandle's power-play goal with 10:26 left in the third closed the Panthers to 5-2. Dadonov made it 5-3 on a power-play goal with 4:08 left.
"Coming in here and getting some momentum early was huge," Dzingel said. "Obviously, we'd like to finish a little bit better, but we'll work on that."
Aho scored into an empty net with 1:19 remaining.
The Hurricanes got four goals in a span of less than 12 minutes during the first period.
Staal gave them a 1-0 lead when he poked in the puck from in front after it deflected off a defenseman's skate at 6:48. After the Hurricanes killed off a 5-on-3, Teravainen made it 2-0 when he deflected in a point shot from Fleury at 11:04.
"That to me is the play of the game. We got some huge blocks ... and then we go down and score," Brind'Amour said. "That basically kills the other team."
Hamilton stretched the advantage to 3-0 when he wristed a pass from Svechnikov into the net at 15:37. Dzingel's power-play goal with 1:46 left in the first made it 4-0.
NOTES: Yandle became the fifth player in NHL history and first born in the United States to play in 800 consecutive games. He joined Doug Jarvis (964), Garry Unger (914), Steve Larmer (884) and Andrew Cogliano (830). ... Reimer, acquired by the Hurricanes from the Panthers on June 30, made his first start against his former team.
UP NEXT
Hurricanes: Visit the New York Islanders on Friday.
Panthers: At the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
