Samoskevich, Panthers Rally to Defeat Islanders 6-3

The Florida Panthers rallied to erase a three-goal deficit to defeat the New York Islanders, 6-3, behind Mackie Samoskevich’s first NHL goal.

ELMONT, N.Y. — Mackie Samoskevich’s night was a euphemism for how this Saturday-night trip to Long Island went for the Florida Panthers.

The Panthers found themselves down three goals early on, but rallied back behind a strong second-period showing to take a 6-3 win in what could very well be their last game without captain Aleksander Barkov.

Florida tied the game in as fitting of a way as possible.

Samoskevich, who saw himself demoted to the fourth line after coming up empty on a slew of high-danger scoring chances, had another great look at his first NHL goal midway through the second period.

He had the puck from the top of the face-off circle and wired it past Semyon Varlamov, but once again, came up empty. By inches. This time, it just hit the inside of the post and fluttered away from the goal crease.

But he came back out there and went for it again on his next shift, and there was no stopping him this time.

Samoskevich zoomed past the Islanders defense with a burst of speed and tucked the puck into the open cage on a wrap-around before Varlamov had a chance of getting over with 1:46 to go in the second period to tie the game.

“It felt like 1,000 pounds off my shoulders,” Samoskevich said. “I felt like I played good enough to score. It just wasn’t going in, so [my teammates] were supporting me the whole way, telling me to keep going and it’s coming and stuff like that. It was a huge help having them behind me.”

That was what the Panthers needed to fully take over the driver’s seat of this game.

It certainly did not look good for them early.

Dennis Cholowski beat a heavily-screened Spencer Knight with a wrist shot from the point 1:32 into the game to put the Islanders ahead early.

Kyle Palmieri then made it 2-0 less than five minutes later after jamming the rebound of a Ryan Pulock shot past Knight.

Brock Nelson deflected a funky bounce off the boards via a Maxim Tsyplakov dump-in to put the Panthers down by three to cap off a very uncharacteristic start for the Panthers.

They were letting the Islanders take up all of the real estate in front of their crease and Knight could not bail them out.

But everything changed when Anton Lundell kicked an Islanders clearing attempt onto his own stick and started the rush that sent Sam Reinhart on a breakaway. He promptly ripped a wrist shot past Varlamov with 6:33 to go in the first period to tie the game up at 3-3.

“I think we moved the puck slowly, and then we stopped trying to possess the puck on every change of possession, we got faster,” coach Paul Maurice said. “It has to go into holes, it has to go out of holes and we just got a slasher in on the first goal — just get it out and get it in. I thought we sped up with the puck.”

Matthew Tkachuk, in his third game back from illness, finally got back to his old antics early in the second period.

He found himself in front of the net, taking jabs at Varlamov, when Carter Verhaeghe ripped a shot that rang off the post and landed just behind the New York netminder. He promptly jammed it home 6:38 into the second period for his first goal of the season.

And that gave way to Samoskevich’s shining moment.

His wrap-around late in the second period energized the Panthers coming into the third period.

First, Knight came up with a whale of a save 1:47 into the third period, sprawling out to rob Anders Lee at the doorstep to keep it a 3-3 game. Then they capitalized that momentum 6:19 into the third when Sam Bennett deflected a Tkachuk shot past Varlamov to give them the 4-3 lead.

Florida found itself on the penalty kill 20 seconds later, but came up with a gutsy kill to retain their one-goal lead. Then they built on it 1:10 after the penalty expired.

Tkachuk ripped a wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle past Varlamov on the power play to put the game away with 10:11 to go.

The Islanders pulled Varlamov to go up 6-on-4 after Ekblad took a hooking penalty with 4:11 to go and the Panthers stymied them once again — and then put the game well without reach when Gustav Forsling wired a shot from behind his own goal line into the empty net with 2:17 to go.

Knight finished the game with 26 saves on 29 shots and the Panthers are now 5-1-1 in their past six games, all without Barkov, who had been missing with a lower-body injury.

“He completely locked it down and was incredible for us,” Tkachuk said. “When you look at the game and see he gave up three, for those who didn’t watch it, they might not realize how great he was, and he was just incredible tonight and really gave us a chance to win.”

And that stretch without their captain could very well end on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres.