Sergei Bobrovsky ‘the Difference’ in Panthers’ Seventh Straight Win

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped five shots in overtime and 34 of 37 in total to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 shootout win over Philadelphia.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky nearly single-handedly saved the Florida Panthers’ win streak.

With five seconds to go in overtime, Travis Konecny was in all alone with just Bobrovsky too beat, but he came up with the glove save to turn him away and send the game to a shootout.

“Well, if he scored there, there would be no shootout,” Bobrovsky said. “You have to stay with the moment.”

After making four saves in the shootout —with a little help from goals from Evan Rodrigues and Aleksander Barkov — the 36-year-old netminder led the Panthers to their seventh consecutive victory, a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Bobby gets better the bigger the game, the higher the stakes, the more intense it is,” Rodrigues said. “And today, he showed that. I think when he makes more saves and he sees more action that’s when he’s even better and takes his game to another level.”

Bobrovsky was lights out in that overtime.

He made five saves in that overtime — and the large majority of them came off breakaway saves and high-danger chances.

“That was a fun challenge,” Bobrovsky said. “Definitely lots of breakaways. I think it was fun for the fans, too, and we had some great scoring chances, too. It’s just fun all-around.

“You just have to stay with the wave and just enjoy the opportunity. Enjoy the moment and play one moment at a time. I thought the opponent gave us a good game, they play hard, they compete in every inch of the ice, and it’s a good win for us.”

The two-time Vezina winner put on a show, and the Panthers needed him to.

“Well, I was spectating the overtime and it was an awfully big treat,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “As a fan, it was really enjoyable. Lots of plays being made in the game, but Bob was fantastic tonight. It was really fun to watch.”

Coach Paul Maurice opted to roll out lines with three forwards without defensemen during the 3-on-3 overtime period, and there were a few moments he would have regretted doing such if it had not been for Bobrovsky.

“I was thinking ‘Thank God the playoffs aren’t played 3-on-3,” Maurice joked. “Maybe I should fire a defenseman every once in a while.

“We go out there to score a goal, and we didn’t. You got to be defensive and responsible, I get it. It’s no fun. So, we go into overtime, if you work your ass all year, you put yourself in a position that you can hopefully get enough points to make the playoffs. I think our record since we went to that three-forward idea has been very, very strong. I want to go score a goal, I don’t want to sit back and try to get it to a shootout.”

The Flyers were hounding the Panthers to start the game — at one point, leading in shots on goal 10-3 — and they jumped out to an early lead because of it.

Joel Farabee jammed home a rebound 4:57 into the game to get the scoring started.

The Panthers fought back as the first period waged on, outshooting Philadelphia 7-1 to end the first period, and they continued to do so in the second period.

Nate Schmidt blasted a slap shot past goaltender Samuel Ersson 5:32 into the second period to tie the game. Just over a minute later, Dmitry Kulikov roofed a wrist shot bar down to give Florida the lead. Rodrigues picked up the primary helper on both goals.

Philadelphia challenged Kulikov’s goal, thinking the puck went out of play in the sequence leading to the goal, but after a lengthy review (and some very blurry, zoomed-in replays of the puck appearing to just hit the top of the glass) the call on the ice stood.

“I couldn’t tell from our bench from what we had down there,” Maurice said when asked about the review. “Just the longer it went, the more confident I was that they couldn’t find anything either. And it has to be clear to be overturned.”

Sam Bennett gave the Panthers the lead with 5:04 to go in the third period, wiring home a one-timer off of a feed from Carter Verhaeghe — but the lead would not stand.

Garnet Hathaway burst past Barkov with a slick backhand move and banked a centering pass off of Uvis Balinskis’ skate and in to tie the game 9:47 into the third period.

Bobrovsky would stop the next nine shots he faced (shootout notwithstanding) to finish the night with 34 saves on 37 shots in the win.

His numbers this season might not be great — an .895 save percentage and a 2.95 goals-against average — but his 8-2-1 record says just as much about the timely saves he has been making day in and day out for the Panthers.

As long as he keeps doing that, Maurice won’t be too concerned about the numbers.

“He’s been making huge saves,” Maurice said. “Without [Aleksander Barkov, Tomas Nosek] and Matthew Tkachuk, we gave up a little more than we liked, but we haven’t forced him to be the difference.

“He was the difference tonight, clearly. We haven’t asked him or forced him to do that too often, but he rises to that. So, I don’t look at Sergei’s stats at all, or Spencer Knight, for that matter. I watch the game, Robbie Tallas knows how well he plays. There’s a lot of little stuff that happened around the net and he had to be really good today.”