Panthers hang on to salvage Southern California split, but exits with leg injury

ANAHEIM, Calif. —Olive r Ekman-Larsson scored his second goal in the last four games, Anton Lundell had two assists and the Florida Panthers continued their hot November with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

Eetu Luostarinen also scored for the Panthers, who have won seven of their nine games in November.

The win, however, was marred by the loss of Panthers star Aleksander Barkov, who departed bent over in obvious discomfort after a knee-to-knee hit by Jackson LaCombe in the opening minute of the third period.

Frank Vatrano put in his team-leading 12th goal for Anaheim. John Gibson, who was in net for his 441st game with the Ducks and tied Guy Hebert for second-most in franchise history, made 31 saves.

“We’ve played some pretty darn good hockey (this month) and most of it is just scratch and claw and grind,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “I think in the first part of this game was the first time we were moving pretty good offensively.”

“We weren’t very good. Let’s be honest. The first couple of periods, we were lucky it was only 2-1,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “We waited until the third period. I think we were going before we got the power-play goal, we were getting some zone time. Then, we played with some urgency and it was too little, too late.”

Jakob Silfverberg thought he put in the tying goal midway through the third period, but there was no conclusive video evidence to show that his shot crossed the Florida goal line.

Silfverberg said he thought the puck made it across the line, which a couple of angles on the videoboard showed, but it was not overturned to a goal.

“I really don’t have anything to say. I think anybody that watched the replay can form their own opinion,” Cronin said. “I saw the same thing that 16,000 people saw. I have to respect what they saw in Toronto. I have no control over it.”

Anthony Stolarz stopped 33 shots for the Panthers.

Ekman-Larsson gave the Panthers a two-goal advantage at 18:06 of the first period with a snap shot that went in off the far post. It was his seventh goal and 25th point in 59 games against the Ducks.

“I thought we started pretty good in the first, let in one on the (penalty kill) in the third and then it’s a tight game,” Ekman-Larsson said. “I mean it’s not easy coming in here after we played last night (a 2-1 loss at Los Angeles), but we knew it was going to be a tough game and we got two points and that’s most important.

Lundell, who has 85 career points, passed Vincent Trocheck and Ed Jovanovski for the eighth-most points by a Panthers player before age 23.

Luostarinen scored his first goal of the season at 14:50 of the first when he got Lundell’s pass from behind the net, skated to the near post and put a wrist shot past Gibson.

Vatrano got the Ducks within a goal at 7:39 of the third period when he put in a rebound after Stolarz.

Panthers defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad made their season debuts after missing the first 16 games due to shoulder injuries. Montour led Panthers defensemen in goals last season with 16 and Ekblad was second with 14.