Lundell Scores Twice, Panthers Defeat Penguins 5-2

Four days removed from their last game against Colorado, the Florida Panthers put forth another dominating performance as they returned to the ice Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, defeating the Penguins 5-2.

Aaron Ekblad’s third goal of the season ended up being the game winner for the Panthers.

Matthew Tkachuk led all skaters with three points (goal, two assists) and Anton Lundell had a season-high two goals in the game. 

Florida improved to 34-15-4 with the victory and have won seven of their last eight games. Sergei Bobrovsky picked up his 26th win of the season and is 12-1-1 since Dec. 23. 

Here’s a few takeaways from the win. 

Mambo No. 5 second period

The opening frame of Wednesday night’s game didn’t have much action — with just seven shots and no goals between the two sides.

After an uneventful first, the second period was a complete 180.

Florida scored four unanswered goals in the period from Matthew Tkachuk, Jonah Gadjovich, Aaron Ekblad and Anton Lundell. 

This all came after Pittsburgh appeared to take a 1-0 lead before the Panthers won a successful coach’s challenge as there was a missed stoppage due to a high-stick leading up to the goal. 

After winning the challenge and killing off the remainder of a penalty, Tkachuk and Gadjovich scored just 34 seconds apart — swinging all the momentum into the Panthers’ favor.  

“I didn’t love the first three or four minutes of the second period for us,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “Then we come off that kill with a goal and that kind of loosened the game up a little bit for us.”

Pittsburgh was able to finally get on the board and end Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout campaign 15:24 into the period off of Jake Guentzel’s 23rd goal of the season. 

The Panthers would end up challenging this goal as well for goaltender interference, but the Penguins wouldn’t suffer the same fate as they did earlier in the period — the goal would stand. 

When the buzzer rang to end the middle frame, Florida led 4-1. 

Fourth-line contributes again 

Just last week in Sunrise, Florida’s depth forwards played a huge role in their 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals. Ryan Lomberg scored the game winner on just his third goal of the season.

On Wednesday in Pittsburgh, the fourth-line struck again — this time Jonah Gadjovich got in on the action. 

Gadjovich scored just his second goal of the season 5:02 in the second to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead at the time. 

While the trio of Lomberg, Gadjovich and Kevin Stenlund aren’t an offensive heavy unit compared to some of the other lines on the Panthers, they play a hard forechecking game and at times, it has paid off this season.

Big night for Lundell 

Anton Lundell hasn’t had too many multi-point games, with just four coming this season. On Wednesday, the 22-year-old showed up with his best offensive game of the year.

Lundell scored twice against the Penguins — picking up his fifth and sixth goals of the season. 

This was Lundell’s first multi-goal game since Mar. 30, 2023 — which was last season against the Montreal Canadiens. 

“Always good to get a win and of course it feels pretty good to get two goals,” Lundell said.

Entering Wednesday, Lundell was held off the score sheet in the past five games — last scoring Jan. 24 against the Arizona Coyotes. 

Lundell has put up 20 points in 49 games this season.

Panthers Notes

The Panthers will be back on the ice on Thursday in Buffalo for the second half of the back-to-back. 

Florida was a perfect 4/4 on the penalty kill and 1/2 on the power play: “Big penalty kills will find a way to give you momentum,” Ekblad said. “The way we responded and came out and got some goals was huge.”

Sam Reinhart returns to Buffalo, where he was drafted second overall in 2014. He is one goal away from 40 on the season.

Evan Rodrigues had two assists against his former team in Pittsburgh