Aleksander Barkov scored his third goal of the season in the NHL round of the night.
Florida Captain Alexander Barkov scored a valuable goal for his team, when the Panthers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL hockey match with the Finnish teams with goals 3–0.
Barkov stylishly took Florida to a 2-0 lead with a power play midway through the third period.
Carolina Sebasian Aho couldn’t get the puck into wider waters, but immediately lost it to Florida To Brandon Montour.
Florida was able to counter quickly, and finally Barkov got to enjoy the puck into a practically empty net Carter Verhaeghen input.
– I was especially happy that he scored that goal. He does a lot of tough stuff, grappling stuff that skill players don’t necessarily do. It’s good that he’s playing like that, but he also needs awards, Florida head coach Paul Maurice commented on the Finn’s hit.
For Maurice, the win was the 783rd of his NHL career. With that, he is sixth in the all-time winning statistics of head coaches.
Barkov, who played almost 24 minutes against Carolina, has scored all three of his goals in the early season with superior strength. There are 11 power points in total.
In terms of playing time, however, the Finn has been number one among NHL forwards, with an average of just over 23 minutes. Among other things, the Edmonton superstar is half a minute behind Connor McDavid and almost a minute to Tampa Bay Nikita Kucherov.
The Panthers’ latest hit was completed by Sam Bennett to an empty goal by Anton Lundell input. Montour had an assist on each goal.
Montour is third in the point exchange for defenders with 4+11=15 points. He has scored a total of seven points in the previous two games.
– He can lead like that and score points. He’s always on the right side of the puck, he doesn’t steal at all. He plays the right way, easily and simply. Of course, he also has enough skill to create chances, Barkov praised Montour.
Florida goal Spencer Knight saved a clean sheet and made a total of 40 saves. Finnish guard Antti Raanta made 33 saves in Carolina’s goal.
Carolinan Aho, Teuvo Teräväinen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi were left without power points. There were no points on the Florida side Aleksi Heponiemi and Eetu Luostarinen.
Panthers top reinforcement Matthew Tkachuk didn’t play in the match due to the ban he received at the weekend. Tkachuk hit the Los Angeles goalkeeper with a high stick Jonathan Quick and was suspended for two matches.
Florida – Carolina 3–0 (1-0, 0-0, 2-0)
FLA: Aleksander Barkov 1+0, Anton Lundell 0+1, C: Antti Raanta 33/35 saves.
Washington – Pittsburgh 1–4 (0-0, 0-3, 1-1)
Montreal – Vancouver 5–2 (3-0, 1-0, 1-2)
Anaheim – Minnesota 1–4 (0-0, 1-1, 0-3)