The Florida Panthers started strong, but couldn’t finish the rest of the way, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Nashville Predators.
Nashville’s Juuse Saros stopped 39 of 40 shots to keep his team two points ahead of the surging Dallas Stars in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Discover Central Division.
Sam Bennett opened the scoring during a delayed penalty by going to the front of the net 4:49 into the game, Anthony Duclair took a pass from Markus Nutivaara and his centering pass from the right circle struck Bennett’s skate before finding twine.