The Florida Panthers erupted for a half dozen goals to beat the Dallas Stars by a 6-4 count at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland in the first game of the 2024 NHL Global Series.
Evan Rodrigues got the Panthers off on the good foot just 28 seconds into the game when he deflected in Aaron Ekblad’s shot from the right point. Aleksander Barkov drew the secondary assist by maintaining possession along the boards before feeding Ekblad.
Florida’s first line clicked again at 7:11 after Dallas turned the puck over at the other end. Leading the rush, Rodrigues centered the puck and Reinhart gently tipped it back to Barkov, who fired off a shot that beat Jake Oettinger’s glove just inside the post.
The Stars halved the deficit when Sergei Bobrovksy failed to catch the puck after Ilya Lyubushkin threw it towards the net and Tyler Seguin put a shot in off the keeper’s skate from below the goal line at the 10:45 mark. The secondary assist went to Matt Duchene.
Bobrovsky would come up big, making seven saves, to help the Cats kill off a tripping minor on Matthew Tkachuk to maintain the lead.
After Mathew Dumba took a hooking penalty, Florida restored its two-goal advantage when Sam Bennett dropped the puck to Ekblad and his slapper was redirected past Oettinger by Anton Lundell with 4:08 left in the frame.
The Stars came out fired up to start the second and pulled back a goal at 1:32 when defenseman Esa Lindell jabbed in a centering pass from Jason Robertson seconds after Bobrovsky stoned his initial shot from the slot. Duchene drew the secondary on Lindell’s first of the season.
With the Panthers down a man, Barkov touched passed Ekblad’s dump-out to Reinhart and then the dynamic duo headed up ice on a 2-on-1 break. Reinhart decided to hold and shoot and whipped a shot into the far-side top corner that Oettinger had absolutely no chance on. The shorthanded goal, Reinhart’s third of the season, came at the 6:07 mark.
Rookie Mackie Samoskevich notched his second NHL goal to make it 5-2, Cats 2:31 into the third. Samoskevich tracked down a errant return pass from A.J. Greer and hammered a shot home from the top of the right circle. Niko Mikkola became the third of Florida’s Finns to collect a point with the secondary assist.
Reinhart put the Cats up by four with his second of the night with 9:52 remaining. After Gustav Forsling’s shot was blocked, Barkov collected the loose puck and centered in front for Reinhart, who notched his ninth of the campaign.
With the game well in hand, the Panthers loosened up and surrendered goals to Mavrik Bourque, the first of his career, at 15:38 and to Jamie Benn, with 34 ticks on the count.
Whatever… The Panthers were the better team from start to Finnish (see what I did there) and the late let down made the score closer than it should’ve been. The first line gave the Stars fits, and despite giving four goals, Bobrovsky had a strong outing. That’s four straight wins for the Cats. The two teams will meet again tomorrow at noon our time.