*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
This was no ordinary game, it was something to watch. Marc Staal scored, Carter Verhaeghe scored the winning goal, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Anaheim Ducks with a 4-3 overtime victory on Monday afternoon in Sunrise.
With the win, the Panthers extended the Ducks losing streak to 5 games, while the Panthers have won 6 of their last 10 games. Matthew Tkachuk and Eetu Luostarinen each had two assists, with 7 other Panthers skaters registering a point.
Florida head coach Paul Maurice said of the win that "We were down one, but with seven minutes left figured we would have gotten at least four more chances to score. If there is any hockey karma going, we were going to get one of them to go. It was a pretty one-sided game, we just couldn't put it past their goalie."
Starting the scoring for the Ducks was Mason McTavish, who gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with his 13th goal of the season, coming 11:46 into the game with assists from Max Jones and Dmitry Kulikov. While on the power play, Frank Vatrano scored for the Ducks to double the lead to 2-0, assisted by John Klingberg and Kevin Shattenkirk.
Early in the second period, Eric Staal got the Panthers on the board, cutting the deficit to 2-1 with his 11th goal of the season 2:12 into the period. At the 17:23 mark of the second, it was brother Marc's turn, tying the game at a 2-2 score with his second goal of the season, with assists coming from Tkachuk and Luostarinen.
In the 3rd period, the Ducks took a 3-2 lead thanks to Kulikov, who scored his 3rd goal of the season with Klingberg getting the lone assist. Ryan Lomberg then scored 14:09 into the period to tie the game, forcing overtime. Just 1:42 into overtime, Verhaeghe scored his 30th goal of the season to give the Panthers the win.
After the game, Eric Staal said that "We know where we are at, we know we needed these points and that was a great response by everyone to stay with it and ultimately get two big points. We knew this was important and was a big night. I liked the way my line played whole way. I thought we were engaged and we ended up being rewarded."
Getting the start in goal for the Panthers was Sergei Bobrovsky, who got the win to improve to 17-15-2 on the season. Bobrovsky made 29 saves on 32 shots he saw from the Ducks, which was good for a .906 save percentage.
Starting for the Ducks on the other side of the ice was John Gibson, who was busy all night in a tough loss. Gibson turned aside 51 out of the whopping 55 shots on goal he was peppered with, posting a .927 save percentage. His record now stands at 10-23-6 this season.
Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins talked about Gibson's game, saying that "Gibby was real good, kept us in there when we needed him. They were throwing everything in the kitchen sink at that net. He did a real good job."
Up next, the Ducks get right back in action as they wrap up a back to back by facing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, with Lukas Dostal to get the start. Bobrovsky is expected to start for the Panthers on Friday as they face the Buffalo Sabres.
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