Tobias Bjornfot scored twice to help the visiting Florida Panthers earn a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
It marked the second and third NHL goals for Bjornfot, 24, coming close to five years after his first career goal on May 1, 2021, when he was with the Los Angeles Kings.
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Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist, and Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who have won three in a row. Daniil Tarasov made 19 saves.
Tyler Bertuzzi scored and Spencer Knight made 20 saves for the Blackhawks, who had their three-game point streak snapped (2-0-1).
Bjornfot gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 15:33 of the second period. After Cole Schwindt won the faceoff, Bjornfot collected the loose puck high along the left wall and carried it down low. He curled behind the net for a wraparound shot that went off the leg of Chicago defenseman Matt Grzelcyk in the crease and beat Knight through the five-hole.
Bertuzzi tied it 1-1 with 30 seconds remaining in the middle period. Wyatt Kaiser caught a clearing attempt by Eetu Luostarinen at the left point to keep the Blackhawks in the zone and took it to the top of the near circle before sending a cross-ice seam pass to Ilya Mikheyev. Tarasov stopped Mikheyev’s shot, but Bertuzzi was in front to put in the rebound.
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Samoskevich made it 2-1 at 5:20 of the third period. He gathered a dump-in along the right wall, took it to the faceoff dot and fired a wrist shot that squeaked under Knight’s right arm and trickled just over the goal line.
Verhaeghe pushed it to 3-1 at 7:24. He received a feed from Evan Rodrigues at the left hash mark and quickly beat Knight with a wrist shot to the glove side.
Reinhart scored an empty-net goal at 18:11 to make it 4-1, and Bjornfot notched his second tally from low in the left circle at 19:38 for the 5-1 final.