SUNRISE, Fla. — Aaron Ekblad scored his second goal of the game 22 seconds into overtime and the Florida Panthers rallied with five straight goals to stun the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 Thursday night.
Brett Connolly sparked the comeback with two goals in 27 seconds in the second period, and Dominic Toninato tied it with 4:23 remaining in the third. Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves, and Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau each had two assists.
Ondrej Kase had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, and Rickard Rakell, Nick Ritchie and Max Jones also scored. John Gibson stopped 23 shots.
Ekblad beat Gibson from the right circle to cap Florida’s rally from a 4-0 deficit. The Panthers staged a similar five-goal comeback to beat the Boston Bruins 5-4 in a shootout on Nov. 12th.
Connolly got Florida going with 1:07 left in the second, scoring on a shot from the high slot. He connected again from the slot with 40 seconds left to make it 4-2.
Ekblad cut the deficit to one with a sharp shot from the point, and Toninato tied it by poking in a rebound.
Jones put Anaheim ahead 2:45 into the game by picking up a loose puck in front and poking it in.
The Ducks then scored three times in the second. Ritchie buried a one-timer, Rackell fired one in on a power play and Kase made it 4-0 after a Florida turnover. Connolly scored 14 seconds after Kase.
NOTES
Ducks F Jakob Silfverberg assisted on Jones’ goal and leads the team with nine goals and has 18 points. … Panthers D MacKenzie Weegar missed his fifth consecutive game with an upper-body injury and isn’t expected back until next week.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday
Panthers: Visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday
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Paul Gereffi, The Associated Press
