Evan Rodrigues scored twice, including the game-winning goal, and added two assists to power the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 victory over the Dallas Stars, vaulting his club back into second place in the Atlantic Division.
Rodrigues opened the scoring 4:39 into the action when he got behind the defense and took a stretch pass from Niko Mikkola and beat Jake Oettinger with a wrist shot from just above the right circle. The second assist on the goal went to Sam Reinhart.
After Thomas Harley gained the zone and dumped the puck behind the net, Sam Steel got to it and sent a lazy centering feed out to Radek Faksa, who slapped it home to even the score at 14:32.
The Panthers regained the lead 4:32 later with the goal going to Reinhart and the second helper to Rodrigues. Florida’s leading scorer traded passes with Aleksander Barkov twice before the captain ripped a shot wide. The puck came off the back boards to Reinhart and he drilled it by Oettinger for his 17th goal.
Mikkola would stifle Joe Pavelski and get the puck up to Carter Verhaeghe to trigger a 3-on-2 rush with the Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. Verhaeghe centered to Bennett before getting the puck back and punching it past Oettinger from the lower left circle to make 3-1 twenty-four ticks into the second period.
Two former Panthers would contribute goals to help Dallas equalize early in the final frame.
Mason Marchment tallied 39 seconds in with Bennett off for roughing. Matt Duchene won a draw back to Miro Heiskanen and then bumped the defenseman’s return pass across the slot to Marchment, who slung it into the back of the net.
After the Cats failed to get a clear along the right boards, Wyatt Johnston went cross-ice to Jani Hakanpää and his slap pass was redirected by a helpless Sergei Bobrovsky by Evgeni Dadonov at the 4:15 mark.
Another fortuitous bounce allowed the Panthers to snap the tie a scant 37 seconds later. After tracking down Reinhart miss on a one-timer, Rodrigues centered to Samson and he missed again, high and wide. Oettinger thought the puck was going to come out on his right, but instead in came down on his left, where a waiting Barkov pounced on the rebound and chipped it in.
With Steel serving a high-stick minor, Rodrigues would get his second of the night at the eight-minute mark to give the Cats some much-needed breathing room when the rebound of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot came to him in the slot and after a little maneuvering, he was able to bury it. Reinhart got his third point of the game with the second helper.
The goal ended up being a big one because the Stars halved the deficit at 12:26 when Harley, after playing catch with Marchment, sent the puck towards the net looking for a deflection and found pay dirt after it found its way underneath Bobrovsky. Duchene collected his second assist on the goal which is one Bobrovsky definitely wanted back.
Not to worry, the Panthers were able to close it out and end their three-game losing streak on home ice, leap frogging the Detroit Red Wings in the standings in the process. The Cats remained unbeaten (10-0-2) in regulation when scoring the game’s first goal first this season. Florida will finish the three-game homestand on Friday against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Giants & Dwarfs
- First star Evan Rodrigues became the second player in franchise history to record two four-point performances in his first 25 games with the club, joining Kris Versteeg, who did it in 2011-12.
- Florida first line combined for three goals and nine points with each member finishing the high-scoring tilt with a plus-three rating. The trio potted the triplet on just seven shots.
- Sam Reinhart’s three-point game was his 12th multipoint outing of the campaign. Only New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin has more (13).
- Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves to earn his 12th win of the season. Jake Oettinger stopped 26 of 31 shots and lost both games of the Stars’ Sunshine State excursion.
- Carter Verhaeghe has scored in three straight games and four goals and two assists in his last five outings.
- Esa Lindell led Dallas with five shots on goal and fellow blueliner Jani Hakanpää dished out a game-high five hits.
- For the other side of Florida’s 15th win of the season, stop by Defending Big D.