Hurricanes fall 6-1 to Panthers

Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network

Carolina_Hurricanes_vs_Florida_Panthers_Jaromir_JagrSUNRISE, FLA. – The Carolina Hurricanes lost 6-1 to the Florida Panthers in front of 9,287 in attendance at BB&T Center on Thursday.

Trailing 6-0 in the third period, Chris Terry scored his 10th goal of the season with 1:19 remaining to end Florida goalkeeper Roberto Luongo’s shutout bid, as he finished with 31 saves and earned his 400th career win.

Carolina netminder Anton Khudobin made 29 saves in the losing effort.

Trailing 1-0 after a late opening-period goal from Florida captain Willie Mitchell, Carolina (28-38-11) fell further behind while being outshot 17-8 in the second.

“We didn’t come out and have a very good period,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said.

“We were on our heels a little bit and spent too much time defending.”

Goals from Brandon Pirri, Jaromir Jagr, and Aleksander Barkov, gave the Panthers (36-27-15) a very comfortable 4-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Most notably during the period was Jagr’s progression up the National Hockey League (NHL) all-time points list as his assist on Pirri’s goal which was followed up by scoring his 16th goal of the season pulled him into a tie for fourth place with Hurricanes executive vice-president and general manager Ron Francis.

Each now has 1798 career points.

Trailing by six following back-to-back goals, 38 seconds apart, from Vincent Trocheck, Terry extended his current point streak to four games (2 goals, 2 assists) by putting away a rebound on the power play that kept the Hurricanes from being shut out by Florida for the third time this season.

The Panthers defeated the Hurricanes 1-0 at home on Nov. 26 and 2-0 in Raleigh on Mar. 14.

“We had a tough season series with these guys,” Peters said.

Boxscore: Florida 6, Carolina 1