SUNRISE, Fla. — Spencer Knight made 34 saves for his second shutout of the season and the Florida Panthers beat the Ducks, 3-0, on Saturday night to open a home-and-home set.
Jesper Boqvist, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling scored. Boqvist opened the scoring midway through the second period with his career-high 11th of the season. Lundell scored in the third, and Forsling added an empty-netter.
The Ducks, who went into Saturday’s game averaging an NHL-worst 2.42 goals per game, dropped their third straight game to finish 1-4-1 on their six-game trip – three of them shutout losses. John Gibson stopped 42 shots.
Florida scoring leader Sam Reinhart received a game misconduct for a kneeing major against Isac Lundestrom in the first.
Reinhart was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct with 4:34 left in the first for kneeing Lundestrom, who had to be helped off the ice and to the dressing room.
Both teams struggled on the power play, each going 0 for 2.
It was just the fifth shutout of Knight’s career. His last one was a 6-0 victory over Carolina on Nov. 30. Knight came on in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky in a loss to Detroit on Thursday.
The teams will meet again Tuesday night in Anaheim.