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Florida Panthers vs Utah Hockey Club
It was a bad loss last time out for the Florida Panthers falling to the Colorado Avalanche. The Panthers have definitely felt all the games they've played. Florida is coming off two runs to the Stanley Cup Finals plus some of the players being selected to their respective national teams plays a part as well. Paul Maurice has done a fantastic job managing the team and having the team in the position they're in. Florida continued to the road trip to face the Utah Hockey Club which will be the first ever meeting between these two franchises with Utah in their inaugural year.
With just a minute remaining in the first period it would be the Panthers who would strike first with Sam Reinhart taking advantage of the power play. Reinhart was assisted by Matthew Tkachuk as Florida took the 1-0 lead. It was a chippy game between Florida and Utah despite it being the first meeting ever both teams were ready to fight. Sergei Bobrovsky had another stellar game in goal recording 25 saves holding off Utah for a majority of the game.
The third period saw six of the games total eight penalties be committed with Florida taking the majority four compared to Utah's two. The second period was a deadlock with Florida holding onto that 1-0 lead. The final period came alive with what looked like would be an easy Panthers victory after Boqvist got his eighth goal of the season to make it 2-0. Cooley would have something to say about that for Utah cutting the lead in half making it 2-1.
Boqvist once again would find the back of the net on an empty net goal from his own side to make it 3-1 making it back to two for Utah. The dagger arrived two minutes later with yet another empty net goal with Luostarinen skating all the way to the goal guiding the puck in to make the score 4-1. The Panthers would get back in the win column defeating the Utah Hockey Club for the first time ever by a final score of 4-1. This moved Florida from fifth to fourth in the Eastern Conference but remain second behind Toronto in the division.
Next up for the Florida Panthers is a home game welcoming the Boston Bruins to the Amerant Bank Arena.
Written by: Daniel Torres
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