SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Patric Hornqvist scored twice, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped a season-high 47 shots and the Florida Panthers pushed their winning streak to four games by topping the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Tuesday night.
Joe Thornton got a history-making go-ahead goal late in the first period for Florida, which improved to 18-3-0 on home ice. Anthony Duclair, Ryan Lomberg and Lucas Carlsson also scored for Florida, and Brandon Montour had the second three-assist game of his career.
Johnny Gaudreau got his 14th goal of the season for Calgary, and Blake Coleman also scored for the Flames, who led 2-1 early before the Panthers — now with 24 goals in their last four games — got rolling.
Carter Verhaeghe had two assists for Florida, which is now 19-0-0 when scoring at least four goals this season.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 39 shots for Calgary.
And for Thornton, a deflection — a power-play tip of a shot by Montour — late in the first period for a 3-2 Florida lead only added to his resume.
His first goal came on Dec. 3, 1997, and he has now scored in every calendar year since -- 26 consecutive years and counting.
Thornton’s best calendar year for goals was 2001, when he scored 38. That was part of a 21-year run — 1999 through 2019 — in which he scored at least 12 goals annually. He had six in 2020, nine in 2021 and now has lit the lamp again in 2022.
Bobrovsky's previous high this season for saves was 43. It was the fourth time in his career that he stopped at least 47 shots — and ended the game stopping the last 41 shots that he saw.
NO MORE
Calgary came into the game with a 9-2-2-2 record all-time when visiting Florida’s FLA Live Arena, the best mark of any NHL team when playing at the Panthers’ current home (excluding Seattle, which is 1-0-0 after winning at Sunrise earlier this season in its debut trip there).
That was a point percentage of .733. It’s no longer the best by a visitor to Florida’s rink.
Edmonton — 10-4-1-0, with a point percentage .of 700 in its 15 trips to Sunrise — now has the best record of any opponent in the Panthers’ building.
NOTES: It was Markstrom’s first game on Florida’s ice since Feb. 6, 2018, for Vancouver. He played in 20 games between 2011 and 2013 at FLA Live Arena, when he was with the Panthers. ... Duclair now has four goals in his last four games. ... There have been four goals scored by 40somethings in the NHL this season, all of them by Thornton. ... Montour also had three assists on Dec. 12, 2018, for Anaheim against Dallas.
UP NEXT
Flames: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Panthers: Visit Dallas on Thursday.
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
