Aaron Ekblad’s 4-point night fuels Panthers’ road win over Predators

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Aaron Ekblad had two goals and two assists to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.

Carter Verhaeghe, Mason Marchment and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for Florida, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Aleksander Barkov had three assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for the Panthers.

Mattias Ekholm, Filip Forsberg, Colton Sissons and Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville, which has lost two straight. Viktor Arvidsson had three assists and Pekka Rinne made 33 saves.

The teams finish their two-game series Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.

Both of Ekblad’s goals came via the power play. It was his first career four-point game.

Ekblad pushed Florida’s lead to 4-1 with 1:16 left in the second period with a power-play goal, but Forsberg answered 50 seconds later to pull Nashville back within two.

Nashville appeared to draw within one, two minutes into the third on a goal by Rocco Grimaldi, but Florida challenged the play for offside and a video review erased the goal.

Ekblad’s second of the game and eight of the season came at 9:07 of the third to make it 5-2.

Sissons again brought Nashville within two with at 12:40 and Johansen made it 5-4 with 1:13 remaining in the third with Rinne pulled for an extra attacker.

Verhaeghe scored the game’s first goal at 6:29 of the opening period. It was his eighth.

Marchment made it 2-0 at 9:01 with his first NHL goal. Coming off of the right half wall, Marchment cut into the faceoff circle and snapped a wrist shot between Rinne’s pads.

Huberdeau’s goal 59 seconds into the second gave Florida a 3-0 advantage. Former Predator Patric Hornqvist skated behind the Nashville net and found an unchecked Huberdeau in front where his wrist shot deflected off of Rinne’s chest and into the net on the glove side for his ninth.

Ekholm got Nashville on the board at 12:23 of the second on a one-timer from the right point off of a pass from Arvidsson. Ekholm has four goals in the four games he has played since missing six games with a lower-body injury.

FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME

Marchment’s first period goal was the second time in two games that Rinne allowed an opponent’s first career goal. In Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, it was Steven Lorentz.

MILESTONE

Florida defenseman Radko Gudas played his 500th career NHL game.

SAROS TO IR

Predators goaltender Juuse Saros was placed on injured reserve Thursday, two days after leaving Tuesday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Early in the first period Tuesday, Carolina’s Nino Niederreiter collided head-to-head with Saros behind the Nashville net as Saros was playing a puck. Saros finished the first period but was replaced by Rinne to start the second.

Kasimir Kaskisuo was elevated from the team’s taxi squad Thursday and served as Rinne’s backup.

JOHANSEN RETURNS

Johansen returned to the Nashville lineup Thursday. He missed Tuesday’s game after being placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. Prior to missing the one game on the COVID-19 list, Johansen had played four games since missing the previous seven with an upper-body injury.