Woof: Panthers Flop Again, Fall 7-4 to Avalanche

The Florida Panthers are now 1-5-0 in their past six games after a second period of horrors.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Even after a strong start, the Florida Panthers still found a way to fall flat in their face.

Behind a four-goal second period, the Colorado Avalanche ran the defending Stanley Cup champions out of their own building, defeating them 7-4. And it was not pretty.

Florida came into the second period with a 2-1 lead, but Jonathan Drouin immediately erased it 34 seconds into the period via a quick goal off the rush.

From there, the Avalanche turned it into a track meet — and the Panthers lost.

“We played into their game more than we played ours,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “We were not going to beat those guys at their game. That’s just flat out simple.”

It was the first of four consecutive goals for Colorado, who outshot the Panthers 11-5 in the middle frame.

The Panthers finally got some pushback in the form of a Sam Reinhart goal on the power play, but they could not work their way back into the game.

It was a familiar story for Florida, who is now 0-8-0 when trailing after two periods, with five of those losses coming during this six-game lull.

Matthew Tkachuk appeared to give them life 4:17 into the third — deflecting an Aaron Ekblad shot past Alexandar Georgiev on a 5-on-3 power play — but the goal was immediately called back due to goaltender interference.

“I thought it was a good goal on the ice,” coach Paul Maurice said. “They don’t offer explanations on the ice.”

After a quick review, the goal stood despite Tkachuk not creating much contact with the Avalanche goaltender.

No explanation was provided and a 5-on-3 power play quickly turned into 45 seconds of a 4-on-3 before they returned to even strength hockey, and it dashed just about every bit of hope they had.

The Panthers cannot harken back on that play too much, though.

They came into the second period up 2-1 after a quick goal via a perimeter wrist shot from Carter Verhaeghe 15 seconds into the game — snapping a six-game goal drought — and Aleksander Barkov’s baseball swing of an Ekblad shot that was tipped into the air by Tkachuk with 4:16 to go in the first.

Colorado did enough to keep itself in the game, though, outshooting Florida 8-6 and getting a goal via a Cale Makar shot that pinballed off Sergei Bobrovsky, off Drouin’s foot and in 9:13 into the first.

Things just seemed to snowball for Florida as soon as Drouin scored his second goal of the game early in the second period.

Logan O’Connor beat Bobrovsky with a quick wrist shot off the rush 4:04 into the second period.

Samuel Girard then helped Colorado pile onto that lead, scoring a goal 8:59 into the second period before picking up an assist on a cross-crease feed that Mikko Rantanen banged home with 3:02 to go in the period.

Nothing was able to come of Reinhart’s goal less than two minutes later and Florida’s pushback in the third period.

Oliver Kylington scored with 4:11 to go in the game to put the nail on the coffin in the Panthers’ third consecutive loss.

Lundell tapped in a feed from Mackie Samoskevich with 1:43 to go in the game, but it was too little, too late.

Florida now continues a stretch where it faces playoff teams in five consecutive games, hosting the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs before playing a home-and-home against the Carolina Hurricanes.

“We have to get back to work, get with the video, and come to the rink with a little bit of anger and intensity in our game,” Aaron Ekblad said. “We know how to play hockey. We know how to play our game. We just have to find a way to get to it on a more consistent basis.”