Avalanche at Panthers
The Florida Panthers earned a big victory with a potential cost last time out and hope to gain momentum while avoiding a lengthy injury to one of their key players when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. The Panthers outlasted Winnipeg 6-4 on Thursday, but top-line center Aleksander Barkov left the game with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
“Yeah, it (stinks) whenever Barky goes down,” Florida center Vincent Trocheck told reporters. “Him going down is a big hit for us, but guys stepped up. … That next man up mentality is kind of a mentality that we’ve had these last few years.” The Panthers have recorded 12 goals while registering at least a point in three straight games (1-0-2) and will look to take advantage of the struggling Avalanche, who have dropped four straight to start December after a 5-2 loss at Tampa Bay on Thursday. Captain Gabriel Landeskog returned after a four-game suspension for an illegal hit and scored a goal, but Colorado allowed the final three tallies of the contest. “As a young team we have to pay attention to the process and continue to find things to build on,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “There were some things in that game that we did that were better than what we did in the last three games at home. So, it’s a step forward. Now we got to take another step.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), FSN Florida
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (12-13-2): Landeskog returned to the top line alongside center Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the team with 32 points, and Mikko Rantanen (22) and had three shots with almost 21 minutes of ice time. Mark Barberio returned to the lineup and had three blocks in 18:05 of ice time after being a healthy scratch as Colorado went with seven defensemen again versus Tampa Bay. “We expect more from ourselves back there,” Bednar said. “That’s part of the reason why we’re playing seven. You have to play for your ice.”
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (11-13-4): Trocheck boasts two goals and four assists over the last three games and owns 29 points to share the team lead with left wing Jonathan Huberdeau, who notched four assists in the past three contests. Defenseman Keith Yandle collected four assists in the last two games to push his total to 17 points while 20-year-old forward Denis Malgin has scored in back-to-back contests. Florida was 2-for-23 on the power play over a nine-game period before recording four on eight opportunities with the man advantage the last two contests.
OVERTIME
1. Landeskog is three points shy of 300 in his career after recording his 18th of the season Thursday.
2. Florida D Aaron Ekblad scored his 42nd career goal Thursday, tying Gord Murphy for third in club history among blueliners.
3. The Panthers won both meetings last season, outscoring the Avalanche 8-3 in the process with only one point from Barkov.