NHL Friday Betting Recap: Panthers Feasting
Wild Were No Match for Florida’s Offense
A heavyweight fight between the Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild headlined a four-game NHL Friday slate and while the Wild had been playing great hockey, the Panthers humbled them. It was a good night for two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference as the Carolina Hurricanes ran away from a Central Division opponent of their own in the Nashville Predators.
Let’s run through each game and see how they played out compared to the NHL betting lines:

Carolina Returns To Form
The Carolina Hurricanes broke out of a little offensive slump on Friday as they exploded for five goals in a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators in Raleigh. Carolina struck first 10 minutes into the game on a Brady Skjei goal and never looked back. Andrei Svechnikov scored twice (and had an assist) to lead the Hurricanes, who are now tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division and have three games in hand.
Meanwhile, the Predators’ losing streak hit four games in a row as Juuse Saros turned in a rare subpar performance in net. Nashville is sliding down the Western Conference Wild Card standings and, with how jumbled things are, could be in danger of losing a playoff spot completely if this slide continues. Roman Josi provided most of the offensive juice for Nashville in the loss, assisting on all three Predators’ goals and getting a team-high six shots on goal.
Carolina easily covered the puckline as big home favorites. The over (six goals) was in doubt for much of the third period until three goals were scored in the game’s final six minutes.
Panthers Went Wild
Minnesota was amped up for yet another showcase game in St. Paul and the Wild faithful were excited for an inter-conference matchup with one of the NHL’s elite teams. But, the Panthers shut down that excitement pretty quickly with a 6-2 win. Florida scored twice in the first period and rode a Mason Marchment hat trick — the first of his NHL career — to a comfortable victory.
Kirill Kaprizov got the Wild on the board first with a power-play goal but Minnesota wouldn’t score again until the middle of the third period. The Wild were just no match for the Panthers’ ridiculously balanced offense which seems to have a different hero every single night. Sergei Bobrovsky was also great in net for Florida, saving 24 of the 26 shots he faced.
The Panthers won comfortably as slight road favorites and covered the puckline. They nearly matched the goal total themselves and needed Marchment’s third goal late in regulation to cash the over. It’s usually a smart move to take the over when betting online in a Panthers game.
Stars Survive in Shootout
In today’s NHL, it’s rare to see a full game in which zero goals — from a statistical perspective — are scored. But, that’s exactly what happened in Chicago on Friday night as the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks were each held scoreless for the first 65 minutes of play and needed a shootout to decide who got to go home happy.
After both Dallas’ Jason Robertson and Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat scored in the first round, four scoreless rounds ensued until the Stars’ Jacob Peterson beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a nice fake to give Dallas the two points.
Jacob Peterson had the @DallasStars shining bright tonight with this pretty shootout winner. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/k3xR2tm44z
— NHL (@NHL) February 19, 2022
Fleury saved all 29 shots he faced during regulation and overtime and Jake Oettinger (34 saves) did the same. Both teams had their chances to break the stalemate during gameplay but this was a night for the goalies, each of whom was perfect.
It was an unusual way to do so, but the Stars won straight-up as road favorites. Of course, the over (5½ goals) never had a chance.
Vegas Drops Third Straight
The Vegas Golden Knights’ woes continued as they lost their third game in a row, blowing a pair of leads in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Vegas grabbed an early 2-0 lead with goals from Max Pacioretty and Reilly Smith but the Kings kept fighting back, drawing even in the second period on two different occasions.
Then, two minutes into overtime, Adrian Kempe beat Laurent Brossoit with a nice redirection of a slick Sean Durzi pass to win the game for the Kings. Jack Eichel notched his first point as a member of the Golden Knights with an assist on Pacioretty’s second goal of the game but the former Sabre is still looking for his first win as a member of the Golden Knights.
The Kings were pretty sizable road underdogs on the BetUS sportsbook so this was an impressive showing from them. Kempe’s overtime goal officially cashed the over (six goals) in this one).