Bob Boughner said before Saturday’s game began that he believed the matchup — between his Florida Panthers and the Detroit Red Wings — could be decided by who was more ready to play at the beginning of the game.
It turns out the coach was right, and it took just over three minutes for that to be clear.
The Panthers drew a penalty with 16:59 left in the first period, and eight seconds later, Aleksander Barkov found Jonathan Huberdeau, who fired a pass to Mike Hoffman. The veteran then ripped a shot into the net to give Florida the early advantage.