Buffalo has won three straight but has a ways to go if they're going to climb back into the playoff race

The losses have been few and far between for the Florida Panthers lately.

Entering Tuesday’s matchup with the Buffalo Sabres, Florida has reeled off wins in 11 of its past 13 games and overall, lead the NHL with a 20-4-2 record since Dec. 23.

They’ve been doing it with a steady dose of strong defense and consistent offense.

During those 13 games, Florida has outscored its opponents 48-20, scoring an average of 3.69 goals per game while allowing 1.53.

In the two games the Panthers lost during this stretch, they gave up a total of three goals.

They’ll face a Sabres team looking to find success in a similar fashion.

Buffalo has been surprisingly stingy this season in the goals against department, allowing 3.0 goals per game, which ties them with Dallas for 12th fewest in the NHL.

The Sabres have been flexing those defensive muscles during their current three-game winning streak, allowing just five goals during the run.

Leading the way in goal has been Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, He’s won five of his past six stars, boasting a .934 save percentage and a shutout since Feb. 13.

Entering play Tuesday, Buffalo sits 11 points back of Tampa Bay for the final Wild Card spot with 24 games to go and two games in hand. 

If they're going to make any kind of push, the run they're on now needs to be the start of something big. 

As for Florida, Head Coach Paul Maurice is expected to go back to Sergei Bobrovsky following another stellar performance from Anthony Stolarz on Saturday against the Washington Capitals.

Bob’s last start game on Thursday, a 1-0 loss in Carolina in which Bob made 28 saves, including all five high danger Hurricanes shots he faced.

Before that, he’d won seven in a row, and during his 7-0-1 stretch, Bobrovsky boasts a stingy .947 save percentage and sparkling 1.61 goals against average.

The Cats are also expected to get Matthew Tkachuk and Kevin Stenlund back in the lineup after both sat out Saturday’s game with apparent, undisclosed injuries,

Tkachuk and Stenlund each took their normal spots during Florida’s full team practice on Monday in Fort Lauderdale.

The only player who was missing was Sam Reinhart, though Maurice said after that he asked Reinhart to take the day off following a heavy workload during the win over Washington. 

Here are the projected lines and pairings for Florida ahead of Tuesday’s battle with Buffalo:

Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues

Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov 

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