For the second time in a week, the Florida Panthers saw a third period two-goal lead slip through their fingertips.

This time it was Sunday night, with Florida playing on the second night of a back-to-back and facing a desperate New York Islanders team trying to keep pace in a packed Wild Card race.

Holding a 2-0 lead entering the final frame, the Panthers couldn’t find their usual, aggressive form until it was too late, losing on Long Island 4-2.

If the Panthers weren’t happy with their performance on Saturday night, it sure didn’t show during the first period on Long Island.

Florida was lucky to get out scoreless after being outshot 12-1 in the opening frame, putting up only eight shot attempts and giving up a pair of power play opportunities.

An early shift in the second period by the Cats’ top line would lead to the game’s opening goal.

Standing at the side of the goal crease, Sam Reinhart first deflected a point shot by Gus Forsling before jumping on a quick pass by Sasha Barkov at the one-minute mark of the middle frame.

Exactly 3:48 later, Reinhart fired a shot from the right half wall that deflected off the backside of Barkov and up and over the shoulder of Ilya Sorokin to give Florida a sudden 2-0 lead.

The Islanders finally got a puck past Vitek Vanecek, and it came immediately after he made his latest impressive save.

Sliding to his left, Vanecek got his leg pad on a shot by Marc Gatcomb, but the feisty forward picked up the rebound and skated behind the net, wrapping the puck inside the far post to cur Florida’s lead to 2-1 with 13:31 to go.

The Islanders continued to put the pressure on, and eventually Mike Reilly found Maxim Tsyplakov behind the Cats defense and he beat Vanecek five hole to tie the game.

Just 17 seconds later, Noah Dobson picked up the puck in the neutral zone and quickly beat Seth Jones to the net, firing the puck over Vanecek’s glove.

Just like that, not only was Florida’s lead gone but they were also losing the game.

A couple big saves by Sorokin down the stretch pushed the Islanders over the finish line, as the puck dribbled across Florida’s vacated goal line with six seconds to go.

On to Columbus.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Barkov’s assist on Reinhart’s goal was his first point in four games.

Reinhart has logged eight points over his past six games, but he’s scored only two goals in a 14-game span.

Vanecek stopped the first 47 shots he saw as a Panther, a shutout streak that lasted 106 minutes and 29 seconds.

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The Colorado Avalanche won their second straight game Sunday afternoon against Central Division rival Dallas --  the Avs' eighth win in their past nine games that improved their record to 41-24-3 this season.

Here are three key takeaways from Colorado's victory over the Stars:

1. Avs overcome Dallas' early lead, stake out 3-1 advantage after two periods

The Avalanche were down 1-0 to the Stars at the 4:10 mark of the first period on a goal from Dallas winger Jason Robertson. However, the Avs stormed back with the next three goals of the game to go up 3-1 after two periods of play.

Star forward Martin Necas got Colorado on the scoreboard with his 23rd goal of the season -- and in the middle frame, the Avalanche got goals from forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin to take a commanding lead into the third period. The Avs limited the Stars to just 10 shots on net in the first two periods, and that defensive success was reflected on the scoresheet.

2. Sloppy third period from Avalanche allows Stars to force OT

After generating 27 shots on net through the first 40 minutes, the Avs allowed Dallas to out-shoot them 12-8 in the third period -- and that's was what the Stars needed to get back into the game. 

First, Dallas forward Mavrik Bourque struck for his 10th goal of the season with 5:48 left in regulation time -- then, just 20 seconds later, the Stars evened things up when forward Matt Duchene posted his 26th goal of the season to force overtime. Simply put, Colorado took its foot off the gas late in the game, and Dallas was able to secure a valuable point in the standings by pushing the game to extra time.

3. Superstar Makar caps off three-point day by scoring game-winner, pushing Avs closer to Stars in Central standings

Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar had a banner day on offense Sunday, posting a primary assist on Necas' goal, then adding another assist on Nichushkin's marker. But Makar's biggest contribution was a terrific individual effort in OT, as he potted his 25th goal of the year just 34 seconds into the extra period to give the Avs the victory.

With the win, Colorado crept one point closer to the Stars in the Central standings. The Avs are now 8-1-1 in their past 10 games, and they're now just two points behind Dallas for second place in the Central. The Stars do have two games in hand on the Avalanche, but as the possibility of a Dallas-Colorado playoff series looks more and more like what we're going to get in Round One, the Avs' win Sunday was a statement game.

This was the final regular-season game between Colorado and Dallas this season, and the Avalanche's win put the season series at 2-1-0 in the Avs' favor. If we do see the Stars and Avalanche squaring off in the opening round -- or at any point in the post-season -- we're definitely going to get entertaining hockey. And the Avs have shown repeatedly that they're up to the challenge of taking on one of the NHL's deepest teams.

At 27-32-8, the Philadelphia Flyers are 27th in the NHL and once again one of the league’s worst teams.

Head coach John Tortorella impressively managed to bring the Flyers to the brink of a playoff spot last season, only for the team to suffer a rash of injuries, lose a key player in Sean Walker to a trade, and crash and burn out of the postseason picture.

Expectations were higher this season, of course, with star rookie Matvei Michkov essentially serving as a 1:1 replacement for the aging, ineffective Cam Atkinson, who was bought out by the Flyers in the offseason.

The problem for Tortorella is that, one way or another, he and his team fell decidedly short of those expectations.

At forward, Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ main proprietor of offense, has five goals in 30 games in 2025. Owen Tippett, still battling inconsistency in the offensive zone, is on pace for the least prolific full season of his Flyers career. Tyson Foerster is producing at a rate virtually identical to last season and was a healthy scratch earlier this year.

On defense, Travis Sanheim and Cam York are producing far less offense than they were a year ago. The latter was recently benched by Tortorella, and his eyebrow-raising comments about a lack of communication from the coach echo those made by Sean Couturier after his bizarre benching last season, which came shortly after being named the Flyers’ captain.

Players like Emil Andrae and Egor Zamula have stagnated or leveled off, though Jamie Drysdale is starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Accounting for the vast regression and apparent turmoil with some players, Tortorella’s message still seems to be striking a chord with the Flyers–the wrong one, though. When you play the wrong notes, the music turns from a song to noise.

Could, or should, Rick Tocchet return to the Flyers?

If the Flyers wish to go with a new voice and head in a new direction in the offseason, not much is preventing them from doing so.

Tortorella’s contract is set to expire next summer, while Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, who signed a two-year contract after replacing Bruce Boudreau, is up this summer.

The Flyers would owe Tortorella very little at the expense of moving forward. And if the Flyers want Tocchet, they'll have to strike quick.

That's because Tocchet, according to Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal, is no guarantee to extend his stay in Vancouver, either.

“Here’s what I can say: the Canucks are trying to extend him. They do like the guy and they want him back,” Dhaliwal said on “Kyper and Bourne” Wednesday. “But as [Canucks GM] Patrik Allvin says, it takes two to tango. Maybe Tocchet’s taking his time. So, let me throw this at you: Tocchet’s franchise goalie has got four injuries in his last 11 months. His franchise defenseman could leave in two years. His franchise center is on pace for 50 points and signed for seven more years.

“I know the media’s getting to Tocchet. He made a couple of comments the last two games, it tells you the media’s getting to him. . . It’s been a really trying year. He’s had to babysit Miller, Pettersson, the feud. Media’s all over him now, and if this team doesn’t make the playoffs, what’s gonna happen then? He’s got a decision to make, Rick Tocchet. I’m really surprised there’s 18 games left in the regular season and he’s not signed.”

Tocchet, a former Flyers captain played a total of 11 years in Philadelphia, was teammates with Flyers GM Danny Briere under Tortorella on the Phoenix Coyotes, and has spent a number of years working alongside successful NHL coaches, such as Mike Sullivan, Rick Bowness, and Jacques Martin.

A three-time Stanley Cup champion–once as a player and twice as a coach–Tocchet, like Tortorella, knows what it takes to win. The Flyers won’t sacrifice that valuable experience without being able to replace it.

The Canucks boss has reached hockey’s pinnacle more recently than Tortorella, and the reigning Jack Adams Award winner’s best coaching job might still be in progress.

Despite a rift between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller blowing a hole in the hull of Vancouver’s locker room and losing captain Quinn Hughes and starting goalie Thatcher Demko for large parts of the season due to injury, the Canucks are still alive in the playoff race.

In fact, the Canucks are actually in a playoff spot at the time of this writing, even with a player like Pettersson only on pace for 52 points, which would be the fewest he’s scored in a full season in his entire professional career.

Rather than argue with Pettersson on the bench or yank him from the lineup, Tocchet’s conservative approach with Pettersson has seen the former 100-point-scorer start to trend upward with four goals and six points in his last five games.

“I always tell guys, you can have an average first two periods, but rise to the occasion, which [Pettersson] did. Good for him.” Tocchet told the media after the Canucks’ recent win over Chicago. “That’s what we need from him when things are just kind of neutral, that he can just elevate his game.”

This is an approach that would work well with Michkov, for example. Today’s stars respond to coaching differently than they did even 10 years ago.

If Tocchet wants the Flyers job in the summer and the two sides agree there’s a mutual fit, the organization has a ton of ammo to freshen the atmosphere and begin to build a more competitive roster.

A new voice could lead the Michkovs, Konecnys, and Sanheims and reel them back in, while three first-round picks in 2025 can be weaponized to build towards the future and/or acquire a building block for the present.

DETROIT — On Sunday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings played their way to a convincing 3–0 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.

Petr Mrazek backstopped the victory with an 18-save shutout, while Detroit got the offense it needed from from three youngsters.  Albert Johansson (who walked tidily around Knights goaltender Ilya Samsonov for the game's opening goal) was the oldest goal scorer of the night at 24, which Lucas Raymond (22) and Marco Kasper (20) adding third period insurance markers to put the game out of reach of a weary Knights team that had lost in a shootout a night prior in Buffalo.

"Looking up at the end of the night at the scoreboard was a real good thing for our team, considering the opponent, the type of game they play," said coach Todd McLellan after the game.  "So it was a pretty good night for a lot of our players and should give us some confidence."

Here's more on how the Red Wings played their way into the shutout win.

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Mrazek Getting "Swagger Back," Continues to Stake Claim to Crease

It wasn't a high volume night in net for Mrazek, but he did everything asked of him, including a few moments of brilliance when Vegas applied pressure and created chaos around his crease.

"His performance was excellent," said McLellan.  "They didn't have many shots, but they had some good ones that got through traffic, and it was last minute–type saves and then the scramble in and around the paint.  I thought he handled it well."

Obviously, the bottom line is unimpeachable for Mrazek, though there were moments when he was slightly less than convincing.  Over his career, Mrazek's worst form seems to include a proclivity for 'swimming' in his crease, struggling to track the play and losing his relationship to his net.  That wasn't the case Sunday afternoon, but at times there was an uncertainty to his game—peaking over his shoulder to make sure a puck hadn't squeaked through.

In the third, a Mark Stone slapper that didn't look especially dangerous slipped through him, nearly gifting the Knights a goal.  Mrazek came up slowly following that sequence and had to be attended to by a trainer, but he stayed in the game.  After the game, he joked that he "got it in a spot where you don't want to know where I got it," temporarily incapacitating him but nothing serious.

He's now made three straight starts and is clearly McLellan's first choice in net following his return to Detroit at the deadline.  Of the decision to stick with him, McLellan said, "He's given us some confidence...You just feel it on the bench. When a save is made, the energy that's on the bench right now with Petr in the pipes...we sense that, we feel it, so we chose to go with him again."

Mrazek himself said that his sense of comfort has grown with the continuity he's gotten since coming back to the Red Wings.  Before his current run of three straight starts (and two wins), Mrazek hadn't played since Jan. 27 with the Blackhawks.  "Playing those three games in a row definitely helps...[I] haven't been playing for a while before, and once you're playing, you're getting your confidence back, your swagger back, so I've felt every game that I've played, I've felt better and better," he said after Sunday's shutout.

It's hard to imagine McLellan would turn away from Mrazek heading into Tuesday's game in Washington, considering the coach stuck with him following Friday's loss in Carolina and was rewarded Sunday for doing so.

Kasper, Johansson Keep Playing Way into More Confidence

Both Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson scored for the Red Wings Sunday, but in both cases, the goal alone fails to encapsulate the scope of their influence on the game and the result for Detroit.

The Red Wings second line—Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat on Kasper's wings—was by far its most consistently dangerous Sunday afternoon.  Per MoneyPuck.com, the trio played 13:05 together at five-on-five, accruing a 2.033–0.381 edge in expected goals and 1–0 advantage in actual goals.

Kasper effectively clinched the game with just under nine minutes to play, when he re-directed home an Erik Gustafsson pass to make it 3–0 Detroit, but he could easily have had scored another (perhaps even two) based on the chances he found for himself.  

In moving from Dylan Larkin's wing on the top line (where he looked completely at home) to the 2C hole with Kane and DeBrincat, Kasper continues to show the intelligence and maturity in his game.  He was involved in everything for his line—killing plays and winning back pucks in the defensive zone, transitioning the puck from end to end, and, of course, actually finishing chances in the O zone.  In so doing, he's shown a natural understanding of what has to change in moving from wing back to center and in adjusting to his new linemates.  Whether on Larkin's wing or centering his own line, Kasper has been a live wire every night for Detroit.

"I'm just trying to do my best wherever, whatever spot I'm put in, and every time I step on the ice, I'm trying to be the most competitive player on the ice—win all my battles, skate hard, and just do the right things," Kasper said after the game.  He certainly did the right things Sunday afternoon, and that's no exception to his recent run of form.

Meanwhile, Johansson showed off a goalscorer's hands in weaving his way around Samsonov and tucking home the puck, but again, the goal itself was just the start of what he did well.

After the game, McLellan gushed about the 24-year-old D man's performance, saying, "His game tonight was outstanding.  There were so many little things that he did when we didn't have the puck in our end—breaking up plays, good read and react type stuff, situations where there was something dangerous about to happen and he was right there to kill the play.  Obviously his goal was a very nice goal, a poised goal, so those are all good things.  His overall play, I don't think there's anybody in the hockey world that would walk into the arena and go, 'That guy's a rookie.'  So just his poise, his growth, his confidence, competitiveness, all the things that are really hard to measure...I think have made him a really good player for us."

Johansson finished the night with 21:49 of ice time, trailing only his partner Simon Edvinsson's 22:37.  Those are minutes he earned and minutes he won for his team.  In keeping with McLellan's assessment, he looks a completely different player to the one who very much showed his youth early in the season.  No matter how the season ends for Detroit, Johansson's emergence since McLellan's takeover is a tremendous positive to take from the campaign.

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The Golden Knights were held off the scoreboard for just the fourth time this season Sunday, when they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Red Wings in Detroit.

It was the first time Vegas had been shutout since Jan. 9, when the New York Islanders blanked the Knights 4-0 on their own ice.

The four shutouts are tied for the third-highest number of times the Golden Knights have been blanked in a season. They were shutout four times during the 2019-20 season, five times last season and seven times during the 2021-22 campaign.

The loss came on the second leg of a back-to-back after the Golden Knights squandered a 3-2 lead in Buffalo, and had a chance to put the game away if not for Tomas Hertl passing to Jack Eichel rather than chucking the puck into an empty net. The Sabres tied the game with 14 seconds left and won 4-3 in a shootout.

After a scoreless first period, the Red Wings got a goal from Albert Johansson to make it 1-0, a lead they'd take into the locker room for the second intermission. Lucas Raymond made it 2-0 early in the third, while Marco Kasper all but iced the game midway through.

Vegas netminder Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced.

"We let one get away yesterday, and I hope it's a learning curve for our team," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "After the game, I was still salty about it, but it's not easy to win in this league, and that's why you put games away. Because the next night you are on the fourth (road game) in six (days), you're on the road against a team in playoff position

"We knew we were a tired hockey team, (Detroit) knew we were a tired hockey team, we were going to need a spark somewhere. And maybe the first shot of the game, I think it was (Victor) Olofsson hit the post. Maybe, if that goes in and gives us a little something to get excited about."

Here are three takeaways from Sunday's loss:

NO POWER: For the first time since Dec. 3 - and just the second time this season - the Golden Knights didn't get one power play. Vegas thrives on the road with a man advantage, ranking first in the league with a 31.1% conversion rate (23 of 74). It certainly could have been effective considering Detroit has the league's worst penalty kill - both overall and at home. Vegas came into the game with at least one power-play goal in 17 of its previous 25 games.

"I would have liked to see a score, even the game, and maybe do something positive offensively," Cassidy said. "Draw a penalty, get on the power play, something to get us going, to get us excited. There wasn't a lot of room out there. And then we did, we got a break with (Ivan) Barbashev. We had a good chance, (Mark Stone) right after that. We had some looks ... but not a lot of looks. But Barby's would have been the one, maybe get us in the game."

REST AND RECOVERY: The Golden Knights have now played 11 games in 22 days, since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the last four on the road. And while six of the 11 were at home, the Knights are looking forward to coming home from the East Coast tour and back-to-back games in Buffalo and Detroit and taking a few days off from games. Vegas is expected to have Monday off before practicing Tuesday and Wednesday and resuming their schedule on Thursday at T-Mobile Arena.

"Well, anytime you get off the road, you get a breather. It's good time," Cassidy said. "When you come off the road in a long trip, turn around and play on a, let's say it was Tuesday, we went through that I think the first year a few times, I thought it was difficult. That's why our home record actually suffered. We'd get back and we didn't have any juice. So hopefully we take care of some family business tomorrow and Tuesday, and whatever you usually do at the end of a road trip, and we're excited to play again."

UP NEXT: Vegas' three-game homestand will be against Eastern Conference teams Boston, Detroit and Tampa Bay - a trio the Knights are now 1-2-0 against this season. They won in Boston, but lost in Tampa and Detroit. The Knights, who are 3-0-0 when playing with three days off between games, have lost 16 of 29 (13-12-4) to Eastern Conference teams this season.

Los Angeles, CA — The Los Angeles Kings (36-20-9) secured the win against the Nashville Predators (25-33-8) in a close 1-0 game at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday, March 15. 

One of the standout players for the Kings was goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who kept the Predators out of contention for a goal, making 24 saves and maintaining a 9-0-2 home record for Los Angeles.

Throughout most of the game, while Nashville maintained a steady defense against Los Angeles with 21 blocked shots, the Kings kept the game moving. 

In the first period of the game, the only penalty came from Nashville — hooking penalty against right wing forward Adrian Kempe. Though Los Angeles were granted a power play off of that penalty, they weren’t able to convert any of their shots to the Nashville net.

The second period rolled around, and the Predators granted the Kings two more power plays — tripping and high-sticking, respectively. Despite the efforts of Byfield and left wing forward Warren Foegele, the Kings were unsuccessful in converting on any of their power plays. Meanwhile, the LA took two penalties  — illegal check to the head and hooking, respectively — though Nashville were also unable to convert any of their penalty power plays. 

As the third period slid by, neither team made any progress towards any goals. Neither team took any penalties. Ultimately, the game went into overtime and progressed the game forward.

As the game flew into overtime, both teams moved up and down the Kings’ home ice, trying to make space for one of these players to step up and drive the puck into a net. Right wing forward Quinton Byfield slapped a wrist shot into the Nashville net, and finally secured a goal onto the scoreboard, giving Los Angeles victory over the Predators, 1-0.

Despite the hustle up and down the Kings’ home ice, throughout the game while Nashville had taken more shots at the goal, the Kings made more aggressive plays on the ice, and made greater strides in the end. 

Notably, with this win the Kings made this game their fifth consecutive win in a row, while at the same time Byfield’s goal at the very end makes this game his sixth in a row where he scored for Los Angeles. The Kings use this victory as momentum for them as they hit the road in order to take on the Minnesota Wild.