Boyle scores winner, Panthers hold off Kings 4-3
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Brian Boyle scored the eventual winning goal and the Florida Panthers held off a late surge to beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 on Thursday night.
Mike Matheson, Frank Vatrano and Evgenii Dadonov also scored for Florida. Jonathan Huberdeau, who set the franchise points record in last Monday’s 8-4 win over Toronto, recorded an assist on Dadonov’s goal.
Sam Montembeault made 23 saves for the Panthers after entering the game with 9:55 left in the first. Chris Driedger started in goal for the Panthers and made four saves before he injured his right leg.
Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe and Alex Iafallo scored goals for the Kings. Jack Campbell stopped 22 shots in his third start in four games. The Kings have lost six of their last seven games.
Behind 4-0, the Kings scored three goals in the second half of the third period.
Iafallo tipped in a shot by Drew Doughty with 8:18 left to make it 4-1. Kempe’s power-play goal, a shot from the right circle beat Montembeault with 4:52 left and closed the score to 4-2. Kopitar poked in a rebound with 2:40 left and the lead was trimmed to 4-3.
Leading 2-0, the Panthers stretched the score to 3-0 on Matheson’s power-play goal. Aaron Ekblad passed across to Matheson at the point and he fired the puck past Campbell at 4:55 of the third.
Boyle’s goal at 7:06 made it 4-0.
Vatrano gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead after Dominic Toninato dropped the puck to Vatrano and his one-timer from above the right circle beat Campbell on the glove side at 3:06 of the second.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead on Dadonov’s power-play goal. Huberdeau made a centering pass to Dadonov, who one-timed the puck past Campbell at 6:04 of the first.
NOTES: Panthers G Sergei Bobrovsky missed his second game because of an upper-body injury he sustained in practice Saturday. … Kings C Blake Lizotte missed his fourth straight game and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
UP NEXT:
Kings: Visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Panthers: Visit Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.