Sam Reinhart on Thursday scored on a backhander with less than a second to play in overtime after Matthew Tkachuk scored late in regulation to tie the contest as the Florida Panthers rallied past the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 to extend their winning streak to nine games.
Sam Bennett also scored for Florida, who trailed 1-0 and 2-1 before pulling out the win.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots for the Panthers, plus got one of the two assists on Reinhart’s winner.
Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA Today
“This was a really tough test tonight,” Reinhart said. “I liked our battle. I liked our compete... It was a fun one to play.”
Trevor Moore and Drew Doughty scored for the Kings.
Cam Talbot made 38 saves for Los Angeles, who are 0-3-4 in their past seven games. The Kings have also wasted third-period leads in each of their past three games.
“There is going to be an element of frustration. I would be concerned if there wasn’t,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “Frustration is a dangerous emotion if you don’t channel it the right way and I think our group has done a pretty good job of it. When you go on a streak that’s not going your way, sometimes you are really upset at the effort and the overall intensity of the club as a whole, but we don’t have that concern right now. It’s there.”
The Kings’ Adrian Kempe was called for cross-checking Florida’s Brandon Montour with 1 minute, 23 seconds left in overtime, giving the Panthers a four-on-three edge. The Kings killed off the first 1:22 of that power play, but Reinhart got his 30th goal of the season — going over Talbot’s shoulder — with 0.7 seconds left to keep the winning streak alive.
Florida’s nine-game winning streak is the third-longest in franchise history. The Panthers won 12 consecutive games in the 2015-2016 season, then had their other two longest streaks in 2021-2022 — eight straight wins to open that season, then 13 in a row toward the end of that season.
Doughty got his first goal in his past 15 games — he had not scored since Dec. 7 last year — about eight seconds into a Los Angeles power play late in the second period for a 2-1 lead, and the Kings nearly made it hold up, but with Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Tkachuk scored with 2:18 left to pull the Panthers into a tie.
It was the fifth consecutive game Tkachuk had a goal.
Both teams had chances in the extra session, before Reinhart got the one that mattered most.
He became the second player in the NHL to hit the 30-goal mark this season, behind only Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
“He’s amazing,” Tkachuk said of Reinhart. “Just a huge goal.”
Elsewhere, the Kraken crushed the Capitals 4-1, the Blues routed the Rangers 5-2, the Sharks 3 sank the Canadiens 3-2, the Jets downed the Blackhawks 2-1, the Flames extinguished the Coyotes 6-2, the Hurricanes blew away the Ducks 6-3 and the Sabres saw off the Senators 5-3.
In games that went to overtime, the Oilers outlasted the Red Wings 3-2, the Lightning downed the Devils 4-3, the Islanders edged the Maple Leafs 4-3 and the Canucks pipped the Pengiums 4-3.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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