NEW YORK -- Patric Hornqvist scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots and Florida beat the New York Islanders 3-1 Thursday night to give Paul Maurice a win in his first game as Panthers coach.
Eetu Luostarinen scored in the second period and Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-netter late in the third for Florida. The Panthers won their season opener a year after winning their first eight games and starting 10-0-1.
Noah Dobson scored for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves. New York, starting the season with four straight at home a year after a franchise-record 13-game season-opening road trip while construction of UBS Arena finished, lost its home opener for the second straight year.