NHL roundup: Panthers top Caps in shootout
Jonathan Huberdeau scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of a shootout as the visiting Florida Panthers defeated the Washington Capitals 6-5 on Friday night. Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck also scored for Florida in the shootout. The game would have gone down as a Panthers loss had Trocheck missed in the third round, but instead it was the first win of the season for Florida. Both starting goalies were pulled early in the game. Washington's Braden Holtby came out after the first period. allowing four goals on 11 shots. Florida's James Reimer was pulled midway through the second after he allowed four goals on 20 shots, blowing the Panthers' 4-1 lead. In regulation, the Panthers got goals from Trocheck, Huberdeau, Evgenii Dadonov, Colton Sceviour and Jared McCann. Washington got regulation goals from John Carlson, Brett Connolly, Jakub Vrana, Devante Smith-Pelly and Nicklas Backstrom. It was Backstrom's goal with 85 seconds left that sent the game to overtime. Wild 3, Stars 1 Ryan Suter scored the deciding goal with 7:06 to play as visiting Minnesota came from behind to beat Dallas. Suter got the game-winner as he skated to the right of Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop (33 saves) and centered a shot that caromed off Stars defenseman Esa Lindell and into the goal before Bishop had time to react. Jason Spezza put Dallas in front early in the third period, but Matt Dumba tied the score at the 9:37 mark of the third when he swept in the rebound of a shot from the point past Bishop. Zach Parise added an empty-netter for the Wild with one minute remaining. Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves. Predators 5, Flames 3 Zac Rinaldo scored the winning goal early in the third period, and goalie Juuse Saros was perfect in a 15-minute relief appearance as visiting Nashville held off Calgary. Shortly after the Flames erased a deficit for the third time, Rinaldo elected to shoot on a two-on-one rush and wired a wrister just inside the far post and past Calgary goalie Mike Smith (26 saves) for his first goal of the season at 6:31 of the third period. From there, Saros provided a masterful nine-save outing to record the win. Nashville starting goalie Pekka Rinne left the game due to injury just past the five-minute mark of the third period, minutes after he and a teammate collided. --Field Level Media
