“Panthers”, who lost the previous two games, beat Boston “Bruins” 4:3 (2:1, 2:2, 0:0).
Balinski was on the ice for ten minutes and 18 seconds, of which he played in the majority for one minute and 36 seconds. The Latvian noted in the statistics with one shot on goal, a power play and accumulated a negative efficiency coefficient.
The Boston team took the lead after less than five minutes played when John Beecher put the puck in the Panthers’ goal, but two minutes later Anton Lundell tied the game and five minutes later the score became 2-1 in favor of the Florida team, with Sam Reinhart scoring the majority of the goals.
In the first third, both “Bruins” and “Panthers” hockey players played hard, clashing several times, and both teams earned a total of ten rejections.
Brandon Carlo tied the score early in the second period, to which the Panthers responded with two field goals in a span of two and a half minutes. First, Reinhart beat the goalkeeper of the Boston team in the minority, and then Lundel was accurate in the counterattack.
In the continuation of the second period, the home team still managed to reduce the deficit to one goal, when Mason Lowrey sent the puck into the Panthers goal, but in the final third, the Florida hockey players saved their success.
“Panthers” goal was guarded by Sergej Bobrovsky, who managed 24 shots, while on the other side of the field, Jeremy Swaymen saved 22 pucks.
“Panthers” could not help in this match due to injury, not only the captain Aleksandr Barkov, but also the sick Matthew Tkaczak, so even before the match Florida team coach Paul Morris indicated that Balinsky might also have to play against the “Bruins” in the forward position.
The two teams also met in the first match of the season, in which the Floridians prevailed 6-4.
“Panthers” has a 2-2 record at the start of the season and will play their next match on Tuesday, visiting the Columbus “Blue Jackets” represented by Elvya Merzlikin.