Vegas Golden Knights vs Florida Panthers Match Player Stats On Feb 02, 2019

Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, and James Reimer made 34 saves to lead the Florida Panthers to a 3-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night at Sunrise, Fla.

Mike Hoffman and Frank Vatrano also scored goals, and Derick Brassard, picked up in a trade with Pittsburgh on Friday, added an assist for Florida, which won for the fourth time in its last five games. Reimer improved to 5-1-2 in his last eight starts.

Max Pacioretty scored a goal for Vegas, which lost its fourth straight game -- the longest losing streak in franchise history. Marc-Andre Fleury, playing in his league-leading 46th game, finished with 22 saves.

Florida needed just 12 seconds to take a 1-0 lead when Barkov picked up a loose puck near center ice after Paul Stastny and Shea Theodore of the Golden Knights collided and fell to the ice. Barkov skated in and fired a wrist shot into the top right corner for his 18th goal of the season. It marked the fastest goal to begin a home game in Panthers' franchise history and also was the teams' fourth fastest goal to start a game.

Vegas tied it eight minutes later on Pacioretty's 16th goal of the season, a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle that went under Reimer's pads. Alex Tuch brushed Reimer's left pad just prior to the shot, and Florida challenged for goalie interference, but the goal was upheld after a replay review.

The Panthers had a chance to regain the lead just before the period when Evgenii Dadonov was awarded a penalty shot after being dragged down by defenseman Brayden McNabb on a breakaway. But Dadonov's wrist shot caromed off Fleury's right pad and then off the crossbar.

Hoffman put Florida ahead with his team-leading 24th goal, gathering the puck near the right boards after a giveaway by Jonathan Marchessault and then skating in and beating Fleury with a wrist shot though the pads.

Vegas pulled Fleury with 2:04 remaining and didn't manage a shot on goal when Vatrano, off a feed from Barkov, sealed it with an empty-net goal with 1:16 left.

--Field Level Media