The Florida Panthers continued to struggle on the road with their 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
Florida is a paltry 1-4-1 away from BB&T Center this season and has lost five of the last seven games it has played overall. The Panthers began the season well, but only have 11 points due to their 5-6-1 record.
Jared McCann's first goal of the season gave the Panthers an early 1-0 lead in the first period. Alex Petrovic and Denis Malgin both assisted on the score. The goal was the only of the game until the 10:40 mark of the second period. That was when Washington tied the score and sent the game into a decisive third period.
In the final period of play, there were four goals scored and three of them came from the Capitals. At the 2:32 mark of the third period, Reilly Smith's second goal of the season put Florida up 2-1. The power play goal came with assists on it from Jason Demers and Vincent Trocheck.
Over the next 11 minutes of play, Washington put three goals on the board and finished off the win. It was a tough stretch for Roberto Luongo who looked solid and made multiple specacular saves early on. Florida's goalie ended up with 32 saves on 36 chances.
The Panthers did a good job once again on penalty kills as they stopped all four of Washington's power play opportunities. During their own advantages, the Panthers were 1-2 on power plays which included the aforementioned Smith goal.
Florida will head home now for three straight games. Up first will be the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
