The Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars 6-4 in a high scoring first game in Tampere, Finland.
Between the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers, there are seven players from Finland getting the chance to play in their home country, and the Finns filled up the score sheet Friday in a 6-4 Florida win.
The pre-game festivities kicked off the first of a back-to-back set of games in Finland as part of the 2024 NHL Global Series, which began with two games in Prague, Czechia to open the NHL regular season in October. Finnish pride was on display, as both coaches trotted out all seven Finns in the starting line-up presentation, and the crowd belted out the lyrics to the Finnish national anthem.
The Stars didn't even have time to establish their game in the first period before the Panthers struck the back of the net. On the first shot of the game just 28 seconds in, Evan Rodrigues shot a wrister from the blue line and it went past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger's glove side, off the post, and in.
The Stars were fighting to get some momentum back on their side, but weren't able to get a shot on goal until about three minutes into the game. The Panthers had their legs going, and Dallas simply did not.
The Panthers would strike again seven minutes into the period on a 3-on-2 situation to put Dallas in the hole down 2-0. Rodrigues led the charge, passing the puck to Sam Reinhart who cleverly bumped the puck to an open Aleksander Barkov, and the Tampere native beat Oettinger in the top right corner of the net for his second goal of the season after missing a large chunk of time due to injury.
At the halfway mark of the period, the shots on goal were in favor of the Panthers, 10-2, but Dallas would fire back with the next eight shots on net. The Stars caught a break when a broken up play left Tyler Seguin behind the goal with the puck. With not many options to play the puck, he instead banked it off of Sergei Bobrovksy, hitting his skate and deflecting in to give the Stars some hope of getting out of the rest of the period only down a goal.
Shortly after, the Stars would get their chance at the power-play after Matthew Tkachuk was called for tripping, but the Stars would not convert and momentum died off. Soon after, Matt Dumba was called for hooking, sending the Stars on the penalty kill. In the dying seconds of the power-play, Anton Lundell, another Finnish Panthers player, tipped a blue line shot past Oettinger, making it 3-1 Florida.
Before this game, the Stars had only allowed one goal in the first period, and now had allowed three this game.
In the second period, the Stars came out looking like a team who had come together in the locker room. Just a minute and half into the period, the Stars strung some offense together and Jason Robertson hit Esa Lindell with a no-look pass for a back door tap-in goal. The smiling Vantaa, Finland native scored his first of the season and brought the game back to 3-2, well within reaching distance.
Shortly after, the Stars went on the power-play, which should have added to their momentum. Instead, disaster struck when a turnover led to a 2-on-1 short-handed for Florida, and Sam Reinhart capitalized with a top corner shot that beat Oettinger. The Panthers and Stars exchanged penalties for the rest of the second frame but the score remained the same.
In the final period, the Stars started their push to even the game up. As they pushed to get back within striking distance, a wrap-around chance ended up going the other way and fourth-liner Mackie Samoskevich beat Oettinger with a quick half-slapper as Nils Lundkvist closed in on him, making it 5-2 Panthers and putting the game most likely well out of reach. Niko Mikkola recorded an assist on the goal, marking yet another Finnish player with a point in the game.
The Stars made it to the halfway mark of the period, but any hope that the game was still within reach was put to rest when Reinhart was left alone in front of the net and made it 6-2. A sound had gone off in Nokia Arena that prompted a review, but referee Garrett Rank announced that although the in-arena clock had stopped, the goal would stand.
Down by four, the Stars suddenly found some life in their game far too late, and with a little over four minutes left it the period, Mavrik Bourque was credited with a goal after a dogpile of players collapsed into the blue paint and somehow the puck managed to slide past Bobrovksy. Borque's goal was his first of the season and the first goal of his NHL career. Ilya Lybushkin notched an assist on Borque's goal, giving the Russian a multi-point game in what was a pretty impressive game for him. He was promoted to the top pairing with Miro Heiskanen mid-game.
In the last minute of the game, Jamie Benn scored another goal to make it 6-4, but with only 30 seconds remaining, it was all for naught as the Stars would still come up short. Esa Lindell recorded his second point of the night with an assist, and received third star honors for his performance.
Barkov finished as the first star of the game after a goal and three assist performance, and the home crowd went crazy as the announcement and trophy presentation was made.
Dallas has a chance to even up the series tomorrow as part of the back-to-back games scheduled here in Tampere.
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