Vilmanis Has Four Points as Panthers Beat Blackhawks 5-3
Sandis Vilmanis scored twice and set up two more goals, Sam Reinhart added three points, and Florida closed its homestand in Sunrise by beating Chicago for its ninth win.
Key points
- The Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Wednesday night, closing a three-game homestand with their ninth win of the season.
- Florida set the tone in the first period.
- The shot count matched the flow of the game: Florida put 30 shots on goal and Chicago 20, counting the late empty-net goal in Florida's total.
The Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Wednesday night, closing a three-game homestand with their ninth win of the season. Sandis Vilmanis led Florida with two goals and two assists, and Sam Reinhart added a goal and two assists.
Florida set the tone in the first period. Vilmanis opened the scoring at 4 minutes and 43 seconds, set up by Carter Verhaeghe, according to the MetricsArena live report. Verhaeghe then scored on the power play at 12 minutes and 29 seconds of the first, finishing the night with a goal and an assist. Seth Jones also scored for the Panthers. Florida outshot Chicago across the night and got 17 saves from Jacob Markstrom on 20 shots, per the Sportradar box score.
Chicago's young core answers, but not enough
The shot count matched the flow of the game: Florida put 30 shots on goal and Chicago 20, counting the late empty-net goal in Florida's total. Frank Nazar scored twice for Chicago and Connor Bedard recorded two assists in 22 minutes and 25 seconds of ice time. Spencer Knight, facing his former team, stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced before Chicago pulled him late. It was not enough to change a trip that started badly. The Blackhawks had lost 5-2 at home to Colorado on Monday and arrived in Florida at the start of a three-game road trip, having gone 1-5-1 over their previous seven games, according to the Litter Box Cats gameday report.
Florida needed the response too. The Panthers had their three-game winning streak stopped on Monday in a 5-3 home loss to Detroit and its former goalie Daniil Tarasov. Two nights later they beat Chicago by the same 5-3 score, with scoring spread across three lines and a four-point night from Vilmanis, a depth winger who took over the game in the first period and kept producing.
Why it matters
Florida keeps banking points at home while Chicago keeps sliding on the road. The Blackhawks have Bedard creating chances and Nazar finishing them, but a team that gives up five goals, including two in the first 13 minutes, is chasing every game it plays. The Panthers, by contrast, got goals from their power play, their defense and their depth forwards in the same night, which is how they won nine games by early November.