Sam Reinhart had one goal and two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk each added one goal and one assist for Florida.
Brandon Montour also scored for the Panthers, who got two assists from Gustav Forsling. The Panthers broke their two-game losing skid.
Bobrovsky, who led the NHL with 39 wins last season but has struggled during the current campaign, improved to 6-8-1. It was his first shutout of the season and the 38th of his career. He is also 9-2-1 in his career against the Blue Jackets, his former team.
The Panthers won despite losing two forwards to injury during the game -- Colin White and Chris Tierney. Florida entered the contest without several other injured forwards, including leading goal-scorer Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Duclair, Anton Lundell and Patrick Hornqvist.
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Elvis Merzlikins made 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who had their two-game winning streak snapped. Merzlikins' record dropped to 4-8-0.
The Blue Jackets went 0-for-3 on their power play, and they couldn't get their offense untracked in general.
It took Florida just 9:04 to get on the board as Montour took a pass from Forsling and scored on a slap shot from the top of the left circle. Tkachuk and Barkov helped screen Merzlikins' vision on the play.
The Panthers made it 2-0 with 3:47 expired in the second. With Florida on the rush, Reinhart dropped a pass back to Tkachuk, who scored on a wrist shot from the left circle, beating Merzlikins high to the glove side.
Florida extended its lead to 3-0 with just 44 seconds left in the second on Barkov's rebound shot from a sharp angle. Forsling got the primary assist.
Reinhart scored on a long empty-netter goal with 1:46 remaining, putting the game way.
--Field Level Media
The Trust Project
