Bobrovsky, Panthers hold on for 5-4 win over Dallas
Evan Rodrigues logged 2 goals and 2 assists while Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 31 saves
The Florida Panthers picked up a big two points on home ice Wednesday night, surviving a late comeback attempt and defeating a very good Dallas Stars team 5-4.
Dallas jumped all over the Panthers during the early stages of the game, peppering Cats goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with the first six shots of the game.
Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola caught the Stars in a line change and found Evan Rodrigues with a perfect pass through the neutral zone to spring the clean entry to Dallas’ end.
Rodrigues used his speed to open up space and wired a wrist shot over Jake Oettinger’s blocker to give Florida an early 1-0 lead.
A turnover at the Panthers blue line later in the period by Dmitry Kulikov led confusion in the Florida end, and Dallas capitalized. Trailing the play and entering the zone unnoticed, Radek Faska blasted a one-timer past Bobrovsky to tie the game at one.
Florida was able to grab the lead back just before the first period ended thanks to some nice passing work by the Cats top line.
The puck eventually found its way to Sam Reinhart at the side of the Dallas net, and he popped the puck past a sprawling Oettinger for his 17th goal of the season.
Carter Verhaeghe made it 3-1 Panthers on a quick one-time snapper just 24 seconds into the middle frame on a rush that was started by Mikkola.
An early third period power play would only require five seconds of work by the Stars to cut Florida’s lead to 3-2.
A pair of former Panthers would tie the game in short order for the Stars, with Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov both being the beneficiaries of excellent passes and erasing Florida’s two-goal third period lead in just over four minutes.
Panthers captain Sasha Barkov was in the right place at the right time just 37 seconds later, scoring into an empty net thanks to a friendly bounce off the back boards that had Oettinger looking the wrong way for the puck.
Florida’s first power play of the game came a couple minutes later, and Rodrigues made Dallas pay.
His second goal and fourth point of the game restored the Panthers two goal lead at the eight minute mark of the third period.
A high-sticking penalty taken by Eetu Luostarinen led to a Stars power play goal by Thomas Harley that Bobrovsky appeared to misread or just lose sight of, but either way, the slow shot found its way through his legs and cut the lead to 5-4.
Bob and the Cats would dig in from there, holding Dallas to just shots the rest of the way, three of which came in the final 95 seconds with Oettinger on the bench.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Wednesday’s tilt with Dallas:
Reinhart is on a nice little heater, logging 4 goals and 7 points over his past five games.
Speaking of multi-point outings, Mikkola picked up his second two-point night of the season. He’s three assists and three points off his career highs in both categories, having already matched his career mark in goals, with three.
Rodrigues is up to 3 goals and 7 points over his past three games. It’s a hell of a way for him to break out of the eight-game pointless run he’d been on.
Florida’s top six were quite effective when looking at the possession numbers. At even strength, they outscored Dallas 4-0, holding the scoring chance edge 22-9 and the high danger chance advantage 11-4. They also generated four rebound attempts and one rush attempt while allowing none, according to Natural Stat Trick.
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