Ducks vs. Panthers: Mikael Granlund's Overtime Power-Play Goal Caps Cutter Gauthier's Two-Goal Night

The Florida Panthers were 20 seconds away from surviving. Gustav Forsling had gone to the box for tripping midway through overtime, Florida's penalty killers had chewed up most of the two minutes, and a shootout was starting to feel inevitable. Then Leo Carlsson slid a centering pass into the slot and Mikael Granlund got a stick on it, and Honda Center lost its mind.

Granlund's power-play goal with 46 seconds left in overtime gave the Anaheim Ducks a 3-2 win over the Panthers on Sunday night in their home opener. Cutter Gauthier scored twice on the power play and set up the winner, Carlsson finished with three assists, and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves. Brad Marchand forced the extra session with a goal late in the third in his season debut.

Special Teams Run the Show

This was a game where the power play did almost all the talking, and only one team was fluent. Gauthier opened the scoring at 16:18 of the first, ripping a snap shot from just above the left circle with the man advantage. Florida answered 51 seconds later at even strength, when Matthew Tkachuk picked off a Tim Washe pass behind the Anaheim net and found Sam Bennett in front. Dostal made the first stop, but Carter Verhaeghe was right there to shove the rebound across.

The Panthers then handed Anaheim another opportunity. Lars Eller was called for cross-checking Granlund right as the first period expired, and the Ducks needed only 47 seconds of the second to cash it in. Beckett Sennecke and Carlsson moved the puck around like they had rehearsed it, and Gauthier finished from the slot for a 2-1 lead.

Gauthier came within a post of a hat trick late in the second. According to the AP, he had an open net off another Sennecke feed and rang it off the iron, then snapped his stick over his knee in frustration moments later. Fair enough. Most of us would have done worse.

Florida spent the third pushing and got two power plays, including one at 15:51 when former Panther AJ Greer went off for tripping, but could not convert. With Jacob Markstrom pulled for the extra skater, Marchand finally pounced on a rebound at 18:10 to tie it, with Eller drawing the assist.

Gauthier, Carlsson and the Captain

Gauthier's night was a reminder of why the AP described last season as his 41-goal breakout. Two goals, an assist on the winner and 20:50 of ice time, all of it carrying the attack. He looked like a player who believes every power play is a personal appointment.

Carlsson might have been even better. His three assists give him five points through two games, and NHL.com noted that he joined Saku Koivu and Daniel Winnik, both in 2012-13, as the only players in team history to put up five points through the first two games of a season. Sennecke, meanwhile, set up Gauthier's second goal, played 21:44 and drew the overtime penalty that decided the game.

Granlund, the Ducks captain, scored his first goal of the season at the perfect time. Dostal stopped 29 of 31 shots, and defenseman Jackson LaCombe logged a heavy 28:41 with an assist.

For Florida, Marchand's return carried real weight. "It was a bit of a rude awakening," he said of the pace, before adding, "but it was incredible being back out there and being part of the team again." Markstrom made 17 saves.

The Overtime Penalty That Settled It

The turning point is easy to circle. Sennecke drove into the Florida zone at 2:34 of overtime and Forsling tripped him. In 3-on-3 hockey, a penalty means four skaters against three, which is less of a penalty kill than a survival exercise. Florida held out for 1:40, but Carlsson found Granlund in front and the redirect beat Markstrom.

Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville gave his opponent plenty of respect. "We played a man's team tonight and a man's game," he said. "All the little things add up and they know how to win, and that's why it was such a big win."

Stats That Matter

• 3-for-4: Anaheim's power play, which scored every Ducks goal. Florida went 0-for-4.
• 31-20: Florida's edge in shots on goal, which did not matter much in the end.
• 11: Straight home-opener wins for the Ducks. NHL.com says that matches the Boston Bruins (2016-17 to 2026-27) and Montreal Canadiens (1953-54 to 1963-64) for the longest streak in NHL history.
• 5: Carlsson's points through two games (one goal, four assists).
• 3: Overtime games in three tries for the Panthers to start the season.

What It Means

Anaheim is 2-0-0 after a 4-3 win at Vegas on Friday, and this was the first home game since a playoff run last spring that the AP says reached the second round and ended a seven-year postseason drought. The Ducks host Edmonton on Wednesday.

Florida is 1-0-2 and has lost two straight, both in overtime, after opening with a 1-0 overtime win at Carolina. The Panthers were playing their first game since captain Aleksander Barkov was placed on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury sustained Thursday in San Jose, per NHL.com. A visit to Los Angeles on Tuesday wraps up their four-game road trip.

There was also a little reunion subplot. Greer faced the Panthers after spending the previous two seasons in Florida, and defenseman Radko Gudas faced the Ducks after captaining them for the previous two seasons, according to the AP. Greer finished the night with two minor penalties.

Verhaeghe summed up Florida's start in two short sentences. "We battled back to get the point," he said. "We've been in a lot of tight games."

Closing Take

Three games, three overtimes. Florida's season so far is a streaming series where every episode ends on a cliffhanger, and the Panthers are getting increasingly tired of finding out how it ends next week. Anaheim, on the other hand, keeps writing its own endings, and this one came with a record-tying home-opener streak attached. Twenty seconds from a shootout, the Ducks found a way. Good teams make that look routine.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and game notes from NHL.com; additional details as reported by the Associated Press.