Florida Panthers Streak Comes to an End With Loss to New Jersey

The New Jersey Devils snapped the Florida Panthers’ seven-game winning streak with a 4-1 victory on Tuesday night.

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end with a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

Timo Meier scored the game‘s deciding goal with 2:30 to go in the second period after a neutral zone breakdown sent him in all alone on a breakaway. He wired the ensuing wrist shot past Spencer Knight.

It was one of a few bad mistakes that led to Florida’s undoing.

“There two turnovers in the neutral zone that were [concerning,] coach Paul Maurice said. “He first one was unnecessary and it didn’t end up in the net. The second one was a bobbled puck through the neutral zone we didn’t handle very well and we probably were not in the right spots away from the puck.

“There weren’t 10 of them, there were a few of them. And either team has shooters that you can’t make those plays against. You put yourself in a position to have a game like that.”

That was the story of the game for the Panthers: Every time they had a chance to get some momentum going, things got sloppy.

Sam Bennett was a late scratch with an upper-body injury and things seemed to go downhill from there.

“He came in and tightened up this morning before the morning skate and didn’t loosen up over the course of the day, so we couldn’t play him,” Maurice said. “It may keep him out of another game, he may come back in tomorrow and be 100 percent fine. And if not, it wouldn’t be a long-term situation.”

The Panthers found themselves trailing 8:30 into the game when Jesper Bratt threaded a backhanded saucer pass through traffic to Jack Hughes, who wired a one-timer past Knight to the lead.

Florida had a chance to tie the game with a 5-on-3 power play in the final minutes of the first period but got way too chooser with its chances, leading to sloppy pass after sloppy pass that stunted its momentum.

The Panthers finally had their breakthrough on the power play 8:30 into the second period, when Uvis Balinskis wired a wrist shot on net that was deflected by Sam Reinhart past Jacob Markstrom to tie the game.

That goal extended Reinhart’s personal point streak to eight games.

Nobody else did anything to extend any other streak after that point.

New Jersey hounded Florida from that point on, really, outshooting them 6-1 and leading 12-6 in shot attempts to close out the second period.

The Devils had their breakthrough when the Panthers were caught pinching a bit too hard and Meier slid in right behind them in the neutral zone. Dawson Mercer threaded a pass to the wide-open star winger and he made the Panthers pay.

Florida had a shot at a late power play with 5:32 when Matthew Tkachuk got tripped up by Brett Pesce, but he was tagged with an embellishment penalty after over-selling it.

Paul Cotter wired a shot under the crossbar and in less than a minute later to give New Jersey the insurance marker it needed.

Ondrej Palat scored an empty-net goal to seal it with 1:02 to go.

Knight finished the game with 20 saves on 23 shots while Markstrom stopped 33 of 34 for New Jersey.

These two squads will play each other one more time at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night at 7 p.m. to complete a two-game set.

“It brings a bit of that playoff atmosphere in the middle of the season,” Reinhart said. “Opportunities like that have to excite you.

“It’s a couple of teams that have been there the last couple years playing in extra months, so it’s gonna be a fun one. A couple adjustments on both sides and right back to battle.”