DENVER (AP) — Roberto Luongo has made himself right at home against the Colorado Avalanche. He just needed a little extra time to continue his success against his former rivals.
Brad Boyes scored a power-play goal 2:23 into overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Avalanche 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Luongo stopped 30 shots for his 375th career win and continued his mastery against Colorado. He is 13-0-2 in his last 15 games against the Avalanche.
Many of those wins came when he was with Vancouver and the Canucks battled Colorado in the former Northwest Division. Even though he’s moved to the Eastern Conference he is still giving the Avalanche fits.
“I’m fortunate,” Luongo said. “It seems you have success like this against one or two teams.”
Sean Bergenheim, Brandon Pirri and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers. Jussi Jokinen had two assists, including one on the winner after Colorado defenseman Brad Stuart was sent off for tripping.
Jokinen got the puck to center Jonathan Huberdeau, who fed Boyes with a pass from the backboards. Boyes blasted a shot past goaltender Reto Berra to give the Panthers their second road win.
“It was a play we drew up. We worked on it a little bit in practice. Everyone executed properly and it was good play off good motion,” Boyes said. “We read each other very well.”
Berra had 32 saves after missing two games with a neck injury suffered early in an overtime loss to Toronto. He has the only win for Colorado this season.
The Avalanche (1-4-2) has stumbled to start the season after beginning last year 12-1.
“At this point in time we’ve played seven games and we haven’t played to our potential,” Alex Tanguay said. “We’ve got to learn from ourselves in there and make sure we come back. I mean, Friday is going to be a huge game for us and certainly the result tonight is not what we expected.”
Tyson Barrie and Gabriel Landeskog scored power-play goals 31 seconds apart in the second period, and Tanguay had a goal in his third straight game for Colorado.
Ryan O’Reilly had two assists for the Avalanche.
“We want an easy game, and until we’re going to want to compete at the level we were last year then we’re going to struggle,” coach Patrick Roy said. “We’re not sharp mentally, we’re making bad decisions. Yeah, we battled back and I’m very happy about that, but we need to play 60 minutes.”
Colorado scored for the first time on home ice on Barrie’s goal on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 2-1. Landeskog tied it 31 seconds later with another power-play goal.
The Avalanche got its first lead when Tanguay’s rebound went off Bergenheim’s skate, but the forward atoned for it when he tipped in Dylan Olsen’s shot from the point to make it 3-3 heading into the third period.
“There wasn’t much I could do on their third goal but it was nice to get a reward for the hard work,” Bergenheim said.
The Panthers, who had not scored in the first period in their first five games, got two in the first 20 minutes Tuesday. Pirri turned Ryan Wilson’s turnover into a goal 4:43 into the game, and Barkov made it 2-0 with a goal at 13:03 of the period.
It was the first time this season the Panthers have scored in the first period. The three goals also matched a season high for a game for Florida.
“It was really good how we reacted to a bad first,” Berra said. “We played really good in the second and a medium third. We needed a wakeup call and I think after that we worked hard. We worked better than them.”
NOTES: Wilson suffered a shoulder injury in the second period and did not return. … Jokinen is one goal shy of 150 for his career. … Avalanche G Semyon Varlamov (groin) is on track to return from injured reserve for Friday’s game against Vancouver. … Avalanche LW Jesse Winchester (concussion) has taken part in non-contact drills but has not been cleared to return to full practice. … The Panthers have earned at least one point in all four of their road games.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
