Daniil Tarasov’s ‘frustration’ message after Panthers’ heartbreaking Wild loss

The Florida Panthers are well outside the playoff race at this time, and are likely to miss the postseason for the first time since 2019. However, they still have games on the schedule to get through. On Thursday, Daniil Tarasov and his teammates took on former teammate Jeff Petry and the Minnesota Wild.

It looked as if this contest was going to overtime, as well. Aaron Ekblad scored with 73 seconds remaining to tie the contest in the third period. However, Joel Eriksson Ek essentially walked it off, scoring the winning goal with four seconds remaining.

JOEL ERIKSSON EK WINS IT WITH FOUR SECONDS LEFT IN REGULATION pic.twitter.com/p0Zm6xseN1

— NHL (@NHL) March 27, 2026

After the game, Tarasov spoke about the loss, and how it has affected the mood in the locker room. “Everyone was happy to come back from 2-0. Then with (five) seconds left to give up the third goal, it’s disappointing. Just frustration now,” the Panthers goalie said, via NHL.com.

The Wild gain a needed two points from this contest, and it could certainly be a massive win looking back at the end of the season. With this win, Minnesota now trails the Dallas Stars by three points for second in the Central Division. If they were to take second place, they would have home ice advantage in the first round.

For the Panthers, little truly changes. They would have moved to 75 points on the year with a win. And they do own the tiebreaker over the Toronto Maple Leafs, which would have moved Florida to seventh in the Atlantic Division. In the end, though, they would still be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Florida is looking to gain some measure of confidence heading into next season. They will need to avoid losses like this in order to achieve that goal. The Panthers go again on Saturday afternoon against Matthew Schaefer and the New York Islanders.

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