Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes

Duclair’s OT goal lifts Panthers past Hurricanes

Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist as Florida extended its points streak to six games (5-0-1). Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots.

“Getting wins on the road is always huge, especially coming into this building,” Verhaeghe said. “They’re really good at home. It definitely felt good.”

Teuvo Teravainen, Brady Skjei and Seth Jarvis scored for the Hurricanes, who never led in the game. They lost for just the second time in their last 11 games. Sebastian Aho had two assists and Alex Lyon had 32 saves in his second NHL game of the season.

“We kind of threw him into the mix here,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Lyon. “Probably liked to have that first (goal allowed) back, but he dug in, made some real big saves and allowed us to get back in the game.”

In the extra period, Duclair’s fifth goal in six games since the holiday break came after a Carolina turnover near the blue line. It was Florida’s only shot in overtime.

“Two of the best teams in the league,” Duclair said. “Huge confidence booster moving forward. We’re pretty happy with our efforts.”

Duclair, who assisted on Huberdeau’s goal that came 65 seconds into the game, has 12 points across his past 12 games. He has two game-winning goals this season, both since the team’s layoff of nearly two weeks.

Verhaeghe made it 3-1 just 35 seconds into the second period with his second goal in slightly more than three minutes of game time.

Skjei, a defenseman with mostly limited offensive production in his career, notched his fourth goal in a three-game span later in the second. Jarvis scored just 1:45 into the third to tie it 3-3.

Lyon was summoned with Antti Raanta out of the lineup with an apparent ailment. Frederik Andersen got the win Friday night against Calgary, but that was his first full game in about three weeks as he had been on COVID-19 protocols in late December.

“I felt like the first maybe 30 minutes of that game I was scrambling a little bit,” Lyon said. “Then I found a little bit of rhythm there. That’s pretty typical for being off for a while.”

The Panthers improved to 6-5 in overtime outcomes. Carolina is 2-2 in overtime results.

POWER ISSUES

Florida had a stretch of four consecutive games with at least one power-play game snapped. The Panthers were 0 for 2 on power plays.

It has been more than a month since Carolina has allowed a power-play goal, making it nine straight games without yielding one. The Hurricanes have killed 29 opposing power plays in a row.

SOME OTHER TIME

This would have been the second meeting in less than two weeks between two of the Eastern Conference’s best teams. But a Dec. 27 matchup in Raleigh was postponed when the NHL delayed its return to action with an extended holiday break as teams dealt with COVID-19 issues.

No make-up date has been announced for that game.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Vancouver on Tuesday night to begin three-game homestand.

Hurricanes: At Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

FLA leads series 2-0