The Florida Panthers put on a pretty impressive showing in their first outing of the 2015-16 season at the BB&T Center.
Jonathan Huberdeau lit the lamp twice and Roberto Luongo stopped all 15 shots he faced over the first forty minutes to led the Cats to a 3-2 win.
Huberdeau, who just signed a two-year extension with the club, opened the scoring with an unassisted goal after a Dallas turnover at the 13:01 mark of the first period.
The 22-yer-old winger struck again 38 seconds into the middle frame with the assists going to linemates Jaromir Jagr and Aleksander Barkov.
Jagr picked up his second point of the night by combining with Brian Campbell to set up Nick Bjugstad for a power-play goal midway through the third period. Bjugstad finished with a game-high six shots on goal along with Rocco Grimaldi.
The Stars finally got on the board when Tyler Seguin beat Mike McKenna 49 seconds after the Bjugstad goal.
Dallas closed the gap further with 1:16 left in regulation when Jason Demers put a wrist shot by McKenna, who finished with 7 stops in his twenty minutes of action.
Florida was able to hold on the rest of the way and raise its preseason record to 2-1, a nice change from last year’s putrid exhibition showing.
The late Dallas rally was unfortunate, but aside from that, this was a solid performance by the Panthers, who were in complete control for the first fifty minutes of the game. The first line picked up right where it left off last season (going a combined +5); the right players got on the score sheet; and Luongo was very sharp.
The Cats will face the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Friday before paying the Stars a visit in Dallas on Sunday.