The Florida Panthers lost another close one, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Calgary Flames that extended the struggling club’s losing streak to five games.
Florida opened the scoring 6:18 into the first period when Denis Malgin forced Noah Hanifin to give the puck away behind his own net to Mike Hoffman. Hoffman quickly curled in front and beat David Rittich for his 21st of the season, The goal was unassisted, but good work by Malgin to force the turnover.
The opening stanza ended with Cats up a goal as Sam Bennett caught the iron after he worked his way around MacKenzie Weegar and Rittich just got a skate on Hoffman’s late power-play shot from the slot,
Keith Yandle sprung Jonathan Huberdeau on a breakaway and he snapped the puck between Rittich’s pads twenty seconds into the middle frame to put the Panthers up by two.