Panthers Beat Canucks to End Slide

The Florida Panthers halted their four-game skid with a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

This was a win that the Panthers badly needed after a disastrous stretch of games and an emotional road trip. It is also a game that Florida almost gave away in the third period. The Panthers took a three-goal lead into the final period of play and barely escaped with the win.

Aleksander Barkov got the scoring started early for Florida with his goal at the 2:22 mark of the first period. Barkov's goal was his sixth of the season and came with an assist from Seth Griffith.

Near the middle of the second period, Derek MacKenzie doubled Florida's lead with his third goal of the season. Assisting on the score were Colton Sceviour and Paul Thompson.

In the third period, Aaron Ekblad made it a 3-0 game with his seventh goal of the season. Jaromir Jagr and Barkov both assisted on Florida's third goal of the game.

The Panthers would add an empty net goal with 48 seconds remaining in the game, when Vincent Trocheck found the back of the net with his seventh of the season.

Roberto Luongo would end up with 33 saves on his 35 chances and did enough down the stretch to finish off the win.