SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Nazem Kadri and Joel Farabee each had a goal and an assist, MacKenzie Weegar scored against his former team, and the Calgary Flames shook off a sleepy start to beat the Florida Panthers 5-3 on Friday.
Yan Kuznetsov got his first NHL goal and Morgan Frost got the goal that put Calgary ahead for good, as the Flames won for the fourth time in five games. Farabee sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:03 left.
Devin Cooley gave up goals on the first two shots he saw, then stopped the next 30 for Calgary.
Evan Rodrigues and Sam Bennett scored in the first 2:58 for Florida, which wasted a 2-0 lead — on home ice, no less — for the second consecutive game, after falling 4-2 to Philadelphia on Wednesday. Brad Marchand scored midway through the third, his 15th of the season for Florida.
Before Wednesday, the Panthers were 9-0-0 this season in games when they led by two or more goals at any point and 9-1-0 when scoring first. Rodrigues scored in the opening minute, Bennett made it 2-0 two minutes later and the Panthers — who have now lost three of their last four games overall and four of their last six at home — seemed to be rolling.
Cooley changed all that in a hurry.
He made 17 saves before the first period was over, and the goals from Kuznetsov and Weegar — second-line defensemen — tied it at 2 going into the second. Calgary had a 5-on-3 power play that extended into the second period and that provided Frost the chance to put the Flames up 3-2 early in that middle frame by sweeping a rebound past Florida’s Daniil Tarasov.
Up next
Flames: Visit Carolina on Sunday.
Panthers: Host Toronto on Tuesday.