RECAP: Florida Panthers 4, Buffalo Sabres 0

Vitek Vanecek picked up a 21-save shutout in his Florida Panthers debut, becoming the third goalie to do so in franchise history.

Newly-acquired Vitek Vanecek made his debut with the Florida Panthers memorable, making highlight-reel saves and picking up a 21-save shutout in a 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

Vanecek became the third goalie in franchise history to pick up a shutout in his debut with the team — joining Jose Theodore and Chris Driedger — after being acquired by the team from the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.

Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, and Carter Verhaeghe extended their lengthy point streaks in a dominant performance by the Cats, who have stretched their winning streak to 6 games as they take over the Atlantic Division with 83 points.

The Panthers have only allowed one goal in the past four games and again demonstrated why their defense is amongst the best in the National Hockey League.

The Florida Panthers started the game with a strong defensive effort, particularly in the first minutes of the first period. At 7:20, A.J. Greer's wrist shot, assisted by Nate Schmidt, got the Panthers rolling. The remainder of the period saw the Panthers focusing on their signature defensive game. Florida had 11 shots on goal at the first buzzer, and Buffalo had nine.

Vanecek, acquired from the San Jose Sharks before the trade deadline, had a promising first period with the Florida Panthers. Despite facing a few shots, he looked remarkably comfortable in his new crease, a reassuring sign for the team's future, and made nine high-quality saves.

The second period started at a similar pace to the first period. However, Carter Verhaeghe nets a snapshot about halfway through the period (9:32), putting the Panthers at 2-0 with assists by Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad. This marked Verhaeghe’s sixth point in the last three games and extended both Barkov’s and Ekblad's point streak to three games and six games, respectively.

Gustav Forsling appeared to be injured when he blocked a shot by Josh Norris with about four minutes remaining in the period. He returned to the game for the third period.

As the minutes ticked away in the second period, the Panthers found the back of the net again thanks to a wicked wrister by Anton Lundell at 17:09, with assists by Jesper Boqvist and Nate Schmidt, who picked up his second assist of tonight. The score to end a high-energy second period was 3-0 Panthers.

Greer and Josh Dunne start the third period with a scrap, and both get 5 minutes for fighting. However, Ekblad gets 2 minutes for roughing, resulting in a 5-on-3 for Buffalo. The Panthers killed each penalty, putting them at 19 out of 20 penalty kills successfully since February 22nd.

With the game ending, Sam Bennett scores an empty net goal to make the final score 4-0, with a goal coming from every line.

The Panthers will begin a six-game road trip on Tuesday night in Boston, coming days after Florida acquired Bruins captain Brad Marchand ahead of the trade deadline. Marchand is injured — listed as week-to-week — and will not be available against his former team.