The Florida Panthers dropped a tough one on Saturday night in Sunrise.
It was a Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Edmonton Oilers, and unlike during the past couple postseasons, this time it was the Oilers who came out on top, pulling away late to defeat the Panthers 6-3.
Despite facing a three-goal deficit early in the second period, the Panthers did what they usually do and attempted to mount a ferocious comeback, thrilling the 19,534 fans who packed Amerant Bank Arena.
Goals by Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Reinhart 3:26 apart had the building rocking and rolling, but that was as close as the Cats would get, allowing a pair of empty-net goals in the final minutes to take what was a close game and make it appear anything but.
Now the Panthers will embark on a one-game road trip to Nashville before returning to South Florida for their longest homestand of the season.
Let’s get to Saturday’s takeaways:
ROUGH NIGHT FOR BOB
Fresh off what was his best outing of the season – a 32-save shutout of the New Jersey Devils on Thursday – Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky struggled mightily against Edmonton.
It started with a weak goal from a bad angle just 25 seconds into the game that squeaked between Bob’s skate and the post, and then it ended with a goal from a worse angle in which the puck went off his shoulder and into the net.
Bobrovsky was called to the bench after playing just 26:45 of the game, allowing four goals on 17 shots.
While he did stop four of the five high danger shots sent his way by Edmonton, Bob also allowed two low danger shots to get by him, and those can be demoralizing for any squad.
“Yeah, he had had enough,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said of his decision to pull Bobrovsky. “I think, like our team, Bob is so very consistent and so very strong, there's no point in leaving him in. We're down 4-1, we're going to open up our game, so it's a great time for Danil (Tarasov) to go in. He came in off a really great performance the last time, and he’s scheduled to play (Monday) in Nashville, so he gets some work to tune him up before he plays.”
CLOSER EXTRAORDINAIRE DANIIL TARASOV
Speaking of Tarasov, boy oh boy did he perform well in relief of Bobrovsky.
It’s never easy for a goaltender to come into a game cold off the bench, but don’t tell that to Tarasov.
During his five seasons in the NHL, Tarasov has been called into action off the bench five times, including Saturday against Edmonton.
In those five appearances he has yet to allow a goal, stopping all 51 shots he’s faced during the 138 minutes and 17 seconds of relief time he’s played during his career.
That’s quite impressive.
On Saturday, Tarasov made 12 saves against the Oilers, including all five of the high danger shots sent his way, in 32:47 of ice time.
“He made four or five really big saves,” said Maurice. “We're pushing at that point, so we're not in our defensive structure as much as we like, so we give up more than we wanted to in that part of the game and he had to make those saves to give us a chance to be able to come back.”
UVIS STEPS UP
Aaron Ekblad was expected to play on Saturday night, but he never came on the ice for pregame warmups and was eventually ruled out of the game with what the Panthers called an upper-body injury.
Turns out, Ekblad is under the weather. He’ll travel with the team to Nashville on Sunday and barring any setbacks, should be back in the lineup on Monday against the Predators.
With Ekblad out, Maurice called upon Uvis Balinskis to step into a top pairing role alongside Gus Forsling.
Balinskis said he didn’t find out until he arrived at the rink that his role had expanded for the night, but he sure seemed to handle it well on the ice.
When the dust settled, Balinskis ended the night with an assist and a plus-one on-ice rating to go with a season-high 19:01 of ice time.
“I thought he was right on,” Maurice said of Balinskis. “When you get moved up the food chain in the National Hockey League, you're playing against a completely different kind of player. And I thought he was trying to win the game, so he wasn't passive, and he wasn't tentative at all. He was aggressive, physical…I liked his game.”
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Photo caption: Nov 22, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) makes a save against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)