Sam Reinhart had two goals and an assist and the Florida Panthers handed Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau his first regulation loss in 10 games with a 5-2 victory Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Boudreau was 8-0-1 since taking over the Canucks on Dec. 6. Vancouver was 8-15-2 when he replaced Travis Green.
Aleksander Barkov scored his team-leading 15th goal and also had an assist for Florida. Aaron Ekblad had a goal and two assists, Maxim Mamin also scored, and Frank Vatrano and Anton Lundell each had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 42 shots.
The Panthers move to 6-0-1 in their past seven games.
Jason Dickinson and Juho Lammiko scored for Vancouver and Thatcher Demko stopped 21 shots.
#91 gets one against his former club! pic.twitter.com/tYND58Pxsa
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 12, 2022
Leading 2-1, the Panthers scored twice 26 seconds apart in the second. Huberdeau’s power-play goal gave the Panthers a 3-1 lead at 8:46, and Mamin’s goal stretched the Panthers lead to 4-1.
Barkov scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway with 59.4 left in the second.
Ekblad put the Panthers ahead 1-0 when his shot from just inside the blue line beat Demko on the glove side at 5:18 of the first.
READ MORE: ‘It’s about the players’: new coach Boudreau a welcome refresh for Vancouver Canucks
Reinhart’s goal 1:08 later — a deflection of a shot from the blue line by Radko Gudas — made the score 2-0.
Dickinson closed the Canucks to 2-1 when his shot from the left circle got by Bobrovsky with 8:29 left in the first.
THE NEW GUYS
There have been five in-season coaching changes in the NHL this season, and this game marked the first time two of the replacement coaches went head-to-head, with Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette facing Boudreau.
NOTES: Brunette will coach the Atlantic Division All-Star Team at the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas from Feb. 4-5. … Tuesday’s game was exactly two years and two days after Vancouver’s most recent appearance on the Panthers’ home ice, a 5-2 Florida win on Jan. 9, 2020. … This is the second time Florida has more than 50 points through 36 games. The other was in 1995-96, the season that the Panthers went to the Stanley Cup final.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Panthers: Host Dallas on Friday.
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