Written by Alain Poupart at NHL.com
The Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins went into overtime for the third time this season and, for the first time, the Panthers won.
Jussi Jokinen scored in the fifth round of the shootout and the Panthers defeated the Penguins 2-1 at BB&T Center on Monday.
“It was a good game,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We played a real good hockey team and it was a battle. Every time we play Pittsburgh it seems to go into overtime and we finally got on the winning side of it. So it was a real big two points. We needed them.”
Florida (33-18-6) defeated Pittsburgh (28-19-8) after the Penguins won the first two meetings, each by a score of 3-2.
The Panthers won for the first time in its six-game homestand, which began with losses against the St. Louis Blues (5-3) on Friday and Nashville Predators (5-0) on Saturday. Florida is 6-1 in shootouts this season, including six straight wins dating back to Nov. 14, the most in the NHL.
Forward Nick Bjugstad scored in regulation for the Panthers; Al Montoya made 31 saves.
The Penguins lost for the third time in their past 10 games (7-2-1). Pittsburgh played its sixth consecutive game without Evgeni Malkin, who also didn’t play in a 3-2 win against the Panthers on Feb. 6.
Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves.
“We played one-on-one in their end,” Kunitz said. “We have to keep driving through some of those. They played a good game. Their forwards keep the puck down low the first 10 or 15 minutes. They’re a good team and they’re battling and had some struggles. Their coach called them out and they came out with a hard game and we took them close to the end and they found a way to get two points.”
Jaromir Jagr, playing on his 44th birthday, had the first great scoring chance of the game early in the first period when he one-timed a pass from the slot from Vincent Trocheck but Fleury made the save.
Bjugstad scored at 7:30 of the first off a pass from defenseman Alex Petrovic. After taking a pass at the point, Petrovic faked a slap shot and instead made a diagonal pass to Bjugstad below the left circle. Bjugstad stopped the puck, which got to him despite hitting a Penguins stick, and quickly fired it past
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