SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Sam Reinhart had two goals and an assist and the Florida Panthers handed Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau his first regulation loss in 10 games with a 5-2 victory Tuesday night.
Boudreau was 8-0-1 since taking over the Canucks on Dec. 6. Vancouver was 8-15-2 when he replaced Travis Green.
鈥淭here were a lot of things we didn鈥檛 do well,鈥� Boudreau said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 never fun when you lose, this brought us down to earth a little bit.鈥�
Aleksander Barkov scored his team-leading 15th goal and also had an assist for Florida. Aaron Ekblad had a goal and two assists, Maxim Mamin also scored, and Frank Vatrano and Anton Lundell each had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 42 shots.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e doing anything special,鈥� Reinhart said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e playing a pretty simple game offensively. We鈥檙e all on the same page there and we鈥檙e being effective. It鈥檚 a fun team to be a part of. We really feed off of each other.鈥�
The Panthers move to 6-0-1 in their past seven games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 how our group has played,鈥� interim coach Andrew Brunette said. 鈥淚鈥檓 just benefitting from how they鈥檝e played all year. I鈥檓 very fortunate to be in this position. I鈥檓 very grateful for the opportunity, but this is a team thing. I鈥檓 just along for the ride.鈥�
Jason Dickinson and Juho Lammiko scored for Vancouver and Thatcher Demko stopped 21 shots.
Leading 2-1, the Panthers scored twice 26 seconds apart in the second. Huberdeau鈥檚 power-play goal gave the Panthers a 3-1 lead at 8:46, and Mamin鈥檚 goal stretched the Panthers lead to 4-1.
Barkov scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway with 59.4 left in the second.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e got great stick work in front of the net, they get their stick on everything,鈥� Boudreau said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a good team you can鈥檛 give opportunities. If you blink, they can score.鈥�
Ekblad put the Panthers ahead 1-0 when his shot from just inside the blue line beat Demko on the glove side at 5:18 of the first.
Reinhart鈥檚 goal 1:08 later 鈥� a deflection of a shot from the blue line by Radko Gudas 鈥� made the score 2-0.
Dickinson closed the Canucks to 2-1 when his shot from the left circle got by Bobrovsky with 8:29 left in the first.
THE NEW GUYS
There have been five in-season coaching changes in the NHL this season, and this game marked the first time two of the replacement coaches went head-to-head.
NOTES
Brunette will coach the Atlantic Division All-Star Team at the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas from Feb. 4-5. ... Tuesday鈥檚 game was exactly two years and two days after Vancouver鈥檚 most recent appearance on the Panthers鈥� home ice, a 5-2 Florida win on Jan. 9, 2020. ... This is the second time Florida has more than 50 points through 36 games. The other was in 1995-96, the season that the Panthers went to the Stanley Cup final.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Panthers: Host Dallas on Friday.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Paul Gereffi, The Associated Press
