Wild Thing: Panthers Tie Game Late, Minnesota Wins It Later
Screenshot SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers got a near-career performance from Daniil Tarasov and tied up the Minnesota Wild on an Aaron Ekblad one-timer with 73 seconds remaining. Only the Wild had one more big shot left. Joel Eriksson Ek ended up scoring the deciding goal with 4.
4 seconds left and the Wild got a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Panthers. Tarasov ended with 46 saves — his most of the season and one off a career-best set against the Panthers in 2022 and Nashville two years later. Florida trailed 2-0 after two periods, but Matthew Tkachuk brought the Panthers within a goal 42 seconds into the third.
Down 1, Paul Maurice pulled Tarasov with 3:03 remaining and the Panthers put on a full court press. Ekblad ended up tying the score with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Seth Jones . Eriksson Ek won it when he deflected a shot from Brock Faber , then grabbed his own rebound and got it past Tarasov.
NOTES: WILD at PANTHERS The Panthers lost another forward early in Thursday’s game with Evan Rodrigues leaving the game with an upper-body injury after his first shift. He was officially ruled out during the first intermission with what Maurice said was a broken finger. That may spell the end of another season for the Panthers.
Jeff Petry, traded to Minnesota at the deadline, was given a ‘Thank You’ shout out on the scoreboard. Playing in his second game with the Wild, Petry got his ninth assist of the season and first with Minnesota. Petry’s last point of the season came with the Panthers on Dec.