Sam Reinhart scored two of Florida’s four third-period goals and the Panthers rallied to beat the New Jersey Devils 4-2 on Saturday night.
Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves. The Panthers kept pace in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, extending their points streak to six at 5-0-1.
The Panthers (35-27-7) moved to 77 points in 69 games, one point back of the current No. 7 seed, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and No. 8 seed, the New York Islanders. Both those teams played later Saturday night, the Penguins playing their 69th game, against the New York Rangers, and the Islanders their 71st, against the Sharks in San Jose.
Nico Hischier and Jesper Boqvist scored in the second period for New Jersey and rookie goalie Akira Schmid made 36 saves. The Devils have lost three straight.
Hischier opened the scoring while killing a penalty, intercepting an errant pass at the top of the offensive zone and charging in on Bobrovsky at 2:16.
A little over five minutes later, Boqvist scored, with Bobrovsky and a couple of his teammates down on the ice after the goalie’s previous save.
Florida got on the board at 6:14 of the third on an odd play when Brandon Montour’s shot from the point hit Anthony Duclair as he was going toward the net. The puck dropped right onto the stick of Barkov, who scored.
The Panthers then scored twice within a span of a minute as Reinhart deflected a Brandon Montour shot past Schmid at 7:54. Tkachuk beat Schmid off a backhander following a pass from Carter Verhaeghe.
With three goals in a span of 2:30, the Panthers for the second straight game lit the lamp three times in a span of 2:45 or less, having also had such a burst Thursday in the first period against the Montreal Canadiens.
Reinhart added an empty-net goal.
UP NEXT
Devils: At Tampa Bay on Sunday night.
Panthers: At Detroit on Monday night.
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