Alex Lyon made 29 saves in his first start of the season, helping the Florida Panthers to a 5-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday.
Lyon’s only other game this season was Thursday, when he relieved the injured Sergei Bobrovsky at 2:01 of the first period and made 23 saves in a 6-2 win at the Montreal Canadiens.
“Good for him,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “A battler. His personality’s what you see in the net. He’s scrambling, he’s fighting for pucks. Every time he makes a save the bench goes crazy and it seems to be right now, very possibly the energy we need.
“A guy like that, playing the way he’s playing, where we’re looking for anywhere we can get some juice, some fuel in the tank, and he seems to be driving that.”
Anton Lundell and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (23-20-5), who have won two in a row and extended their point streak to five games (4-0-1).
“It feels really good to win,” Lundell said. “Overall, it’s been better now. We go to the game, we have the confidence. Me and my line are trying to show and lead the way. Overall, this just feels like we battle. We’ve found a way to play when we’re one goal down, and way to play when we have the lead.”
Video: MIN@FLA: Lundell takes a shot in tight that sneaks in
Joel Eriksson Ek had a goal and two assists, Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist, and Kirill Kaprizov had three assists for the Wild (25-16-4), who have lost two in a row. Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves.
“We battled hard like we always do,” the Minnesota defenseman said Calen Addison said. “We played a full 60. I don’t think some of the bounces went our way. That’s hockey. I think we’ve just got to tighten up. Less turnovers. Maybe less penalties. I don’t know. There’s no real answer.”
Lundell made it 1-0 with 13 seconds remaining in the first period. He scored from in front off a feed from Alexander Barkov after Reinhart stole the puck from Eriksson Ek along the right boards.
Eetu Luostarinen made it 2-0 at 1:40 of the second period, capitalizing on a Sam Steele turnover deep in his own zone and beating Gustavsson with a backhand.
Boldy brought Minnesota to within 2-1 on a power play at 8:56, scoring on a redirected pass across the crease from Eriksson Ek.
Video: MIN@FLA: Boldy gets a sweet pass across and nets PPG
Carter Verhaeghe pushed the Florida lead to 3-1 on the power play at 19:32 with a snap shot from the left circle.
Eriksson Ek cut it to 3-2 at 4:37 of the third period with a power-play goal on the doorstep.
“We actually liked our game pretty much the whole night,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Obviously we didn’t get the results, and we didn’t score enough. … [At] 5-on-5 here tonight we didn’t find a way to score. … If you’re not scoring, you’ve got to continuously work at keeping it out of our net, and we didn’t here tonight.”
Gustav Forsling extended the lead to 4-2 at 7:51 after getting a loose puck in the slot.
With Gustavsson pulled for the extra attacker, Spurgeon made it 4-3 at 18:34, but Reinhart scored into an empty net at 19:21 for the 5-3 final.
Minnesota went 2-for-2 on the power play. Florida was 1-for-2.
“That’s our job is to go out there and be game-changers,” Addison said of the power play. “When it’s not clicking… it can cost us or take some of the momentum, confidence away from our team. I think our job is to go out there and know what our task at hand is.”
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad Did not play after the first period because of an upper-body injury, and Florida forward Sam Bennett left midway through the second period with an upper-body injury. Maurice said each could play in the next game, at the New York Rangers on Monday.
“A lot of guys went down today,” Lyon said. “To me, these are the kind of games you play for. So many guys digging in, playing with five defensemen, massive points on the line. To me, this is fun, and this is where you get to test your true mettle. “
NOTES: Wild forward Marcus Foligno did not play because of a non-COVID-related illness. … Bobrovsky did not dress and is expected to be out for the next two games. … Florida was also without a forward Eric Staalwho entered the NHL concussion protocol following a hit from the Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson on Thursday and is expected to be sidelined for at least two more games. … Luostarinen scored his 10th goal of the season, setting an NHL career high in his 48th game. He scored nine in 78 games last season.
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