*Photo from the Sun Sentinel*
Back and forth, all night long, until Jonathan Huberdeau took matters into his own hands. Anthony Duclair picked up two goals, Huberdeau scored the winning goal, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Anaheim Ducks with a 3-2 win in overtime on Tuesday night in Sunrise.
With the win, the Panthers have opened up a double digit lead in the Atlantic Division, moving 10 points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic, with 9 games in the regular season remaining. Duclair scored goals 29 and 30 on the season tonight, well shattering his previous best of 23 goals.
Asked about the new best, Duclair said that it's an "Awesome feeling. Credit goes to my teammates and coaching staff, putting myself in that situation playing with some really good players, elite players. It's something I'm not going to take for granted. I'm just really excited about it."
The lone goal of the first period came from Troy Terry of the Ducks, putting Anaheim up 1-0 on his 33rd goal of the season, coming 7:38 into the game. In the second period, Duclair scored quickly, tying the game 1-1 on his 29th of the season, a mere 1:44 into the second. Derek Grant scored late in the second for the Ducks, putting them ahead 2-1 after two periods.
In the 3rd period, Duclair picked up his second goal of the night 10:09 into the 3rd, tying the game 3-3 with assists from Claude Giroux and Sam Reinhart, this goal coming on the power play. It remained tied until 3:41 into overtime, when Huberdeau broke out the dangles and scored the goal to send the Panthers home happy.
After the game, Huberdeau said that "We never get discouraged. We know it's going to happen. We put up 55 shots, at some point it's going to go in. We stuck with it. That's the kind of team we are. We want to finish first. Every win is important. We want to keep playing well, keep playing better heading into the playoffs."
Getting the start for the Panthers was Sergei Bobrovsky, who strung together a strong outing to get the win. Bobrovsky turned aside 22 of the 24 Anaheim shots that he faced, recording a .917 save percentage. Bobrovsky's record went up to 35-6-3 on the season with the win.
Across the ice was Anaheim's John Gibson, who, despite letting in 3 goals, seemingly stood on his head all game long. Gibson stopped a whopping 52 out of the 55 shots he faced from the Panthers, posting a .945 save percentage. With the OT loss, Gibson's record dropped to 17-24-11 on the season.
Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said of Gibson's performance that "I challenge anybody to show me a goaltending performance like that. He works his tail off every day, to win hockey games, because he's so competitive. He's put up some unbelievable performances and we haven't been able to finish off for him. We've got to find a way to do it."
Up next, the Ducks take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night, with Gibson in line to get the start. Bobrovsky is likely to start for the Panthers on Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
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