Brad Marchand gave the Florida Panthers a late jolt in his season debut, but it wasn’t enough to steal two points from Anaheim.
The Ducks beat the Panthers 3-2 in overtime on Sunday night when Mikael Granlund buried the third Anaheim power-play goal of the game with 46 seconds left in the extra session. The winner came after Gustav Forsling went off for tripping Beckett Sennecke, and Granlund finished a slick 4-on-3 sequence by tipping home a crisp centering pass from Leo Carlsson.
Cutter Gauthier was the engine for Anaheim all night. He scored twice, first at 16:18 of the opening period when he ripped a shot past Jacob Markström off feeds from Jackson LaCombe and Carlsson, then again 47 seconds into the second period with Beckett Sennecke and Carlsson drawing the assists.
Florida answered fast after Gauthier’s first goal. Just 51 seconds later, Tim Washe turned the puck over behind the net to Matthew Tkachuk, who fed the front where Carter Verhaeghe finally shoved it across the line after Sam Bennett had a couple of unsuccessful hacks at it.
Then Marchand, playing his first game of the season, delivered the equalizer with 1:50 left in regulation. Lars Eller tracked down a loose puck and sent it toward the net, and Marchand calmly lifted it over Lukáš Dostál’s pad when it settled on his blade.
The Panthers had plenty of the play and probably did enough to earn better than a point. They outshot Anaheim 31-21, held a 52-30 edge in shot attempts and won 55% of the faceoffs.
At five-on-five, Florida looked like the better team. But the special teams story was brutal again.
Anaheim cashed in three times on four power-play chances, while Florida went 0-for-4. Through three games, the Panthers are just 1-for-17 with the man advantage. That kind of finish simply isn’t good enough for a lineup with this much skill on the ice, especially when the club has allowed only one five-on-five goal so far and keeps leaving points behind.
Florida gets an off-day to sort it out before wrapping up the trip against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
Marchand wasted no time making his presence felt. After posting 54 points in 52 games in 2025-26, he picked up right where he left off and helped the Panthers grab their fourth point of the season. He logged 13:10, took three shots and had one hit in his debut.
Markström was sharp again despite seeing limited volume, stopping 18 shots, including six classified as high-danger. On the other side, Dostál turned aside 29.
Brady Tkachuk, the new addition, stayed off the scoresheet but was one of four Panthers with four shots on Dostál. Sam Bennett, Seth Jones and Sandis Vilmanis were the others.
Jones also led Florida with 28:35 of ice time and blocked a shot. His defensive work has been a big part of why the Panthers have given up just one even-strength goal in three games.
Carter Verhaeghe and Uvis Balinskis were the only Panthers to finish plus-two, and Verhaeghe’s goal and assist through three games is a welcome sign after an off season last year.
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