TAKEAWAYS: Florida Panthers 3, Los Angeles 0
The Florida Panthers shut out the Los Angeles Kings as shutdown defenseman Dmitry Kulikov reached 1,000 NHL games.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky had a 30-save shutout in a 3-0 Florida Panthers win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
Dmitry Kulikov skated in his 1,000th game, becoming the 13th player to do so in a Florida uniform, and the Panthers honored him by playing a physical, defensively steady style that he has played his whole career.
Sam Bennett got things started 4:55 into the game — finishing off a slick feed from Matthew Tkachuk near the front of the net — and the Panthers limited the Kings to just 18 shots in the first two periods.
Aleksander Barkov scored a power play goal 4:43 into the third period, banking a Tkachuk shot off the boards past Darcy Kumper five seconds into a nine-second 5-on-3 power play, to extend Florida’s lead to two.
Tkachuk scored the empty-net goal with 1:12 to go to put the Panthers ahead 3-0.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday night’s game:
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