Sam Bennett scored with 3.2 seconds left in overtime as the Florida Panthers rallied to defeat the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 7-6 on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise.
Bennett had a game-high-tying three assists and tied his career high with four points. Florida’s Brad Marchand also had a big game with the same line, a goal and three assists.
The Panthers trailed 4-1, 5-4, and 6-4. They never led until the final second.
Anton Lundell bagged the goal that tied the score 6-6 with 5:42 left in the third, scoring on Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins, who was way out of position after trying to clear the puck.
Florida snapped a five-game home losing streak. The Panthers also broke an overall four-game skid.
The Panthers also got two goals from Carter Verhaeghe and one each from Evan Rodrigues and Seth Jones.
Columbus got one goal each from Damon Severson, Dmitri Voronkov, Miles Wood, Kirill Marchenko, Cole Sillinger and Isac Lundestrom. Ivan Provorov added a team-high two assists.
Sergie Bobrovsky made 25 saves for Florida.
Merzlikins made 33 saves.
The teams skated to a 1-1 draw in the first period, and Columbus led 5-4 after a wild second.
Columbus, with just two seconds left on its power play, made it 1-0 on Severson’s deflection of a Provorov shot.
Florida tied it as Mackie Samoskevich worked the boards and got the puck to Rodrigues, who outwaited Merzlikins before finally scoring.
Columbus scored three straight second-period goals to take a 4-1 lead.
In that sequence, Provorov took another shot that was tipped in, this time by Voronkov. Then, passes by Lundestrom and Charlie Coyle freed Wood for a breakaway, and he scored five-hole.
Finally, Columbus scored when Adam Fantilli’s drop pass led to Marchenko’s top-shelf, backhand goal.
However, Florida battled back with three straight goals to tie the score 4-4 with 3:48 left in the second.
In the first goal of that sequence, Verhaeghe tipped in a shot by Seth Jones. Columbus challenged that goal, claiming that Marchand was guilty of a hand pass.
After a review, it was determined that Marchand deflected the puck with his glove but that there was no hand pass, and the Panthers got a power play for the failed challenge.
Florida cashed in on the power play with a great cross-ice pass from Marchand to Verhaeghe, who scored five-hole.
Then, after a tripping penalty on Provorov, Jones scored from the point to make it 4-4.
Columbus took a 5-4 lead with 1:34 left in the second as Sillinger’s shot was stopped by Bobrovsky before the puck bounced in off the left leg of Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling.
The teams traded goals in the first five minutes of the third. Lunderstrom made it 6-4 for Columbus, but Florida came right back as Marchand scored two minutes later.
