Panthers Score Four Unanswered in Comeback Win Over Stars

The Florida Panthers didn’t make it easy on themselves in their 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.

Sloppy play, a few bad bounces and a faster Stars team had the Panthers looking lost and down 3-0 midway through the second period.

“We went through the first 30 minutes for sure, possibly two periods of hockey where we weren’t anywhere near (how they should’ve played),” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We didn’t look the way we were supposed to look. It just wasn’t right, wasn’t hard enough.”

But the Comeback Cats just wouldn’t go away.

Sam Reinhart gave the Panthers some life 12:52 into the second with his 46th goal of the season.

A flukey, deflected shot by Reinhart found its way past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger on the power play. No matter the way it went in, Florida was going to run with it.

The Panthers played one of, if not the worst opening two periods of hockey they had all season in Dallas. 

If it wasn’t for a few miraculous saves by Sergei Bobrovsky while the Panthers were in a hole, the Stars probably would’ve ran Florida out the building by the time the third rolled around.

“Even though it was 3-0 it could’ve easily been 8-0. It actually could’ve been,” Matthew Tkachuk said when speaking of Bobrovsky’s impact. “He did a great job of keeping us in it.”

Tkachuk said they told Bobrovsky to “shut the door in the third” and they’d find a way to win. The Panthers and their netminder stuck to that promise.

In the third, Florida came out with more jump than they had shown in the first forty minutes on Tuesday night.

The Panthers were giving the Stars an effort that was more consistent with the NHL’s top team, but they still couldn’t get a second past Oettinger. It wasn’t until the final ten minutes of regulation, where the Panthers would get their second goal of the game.

Then the floodgates opened.

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov made it a one-goal game after ever so slightly deflecting Carter Verhaeghe’s shot into the Stars net on the power play.

Less than three minutes after Barkov made it a one score game, Sam Bennett erased the Stars three goal advantage after redirecting Matthew Tkachuk’s shot for his 16th goal of the season.

Dallas’ huge lead vanished and all of a sudden, it was a 3-3 contest with six minutes to go.

Already with two power play goals on the night, the hungry Panthers got one more shot on the man-advantage just 28 seconds after tying the game — they made Dallas pay.

Aleksander Barkov scored his second goal of the night and the game winner after his pass which was intended for Matthew Tkachuk bounced off a Stars defender and into the net.

“Even though it wasn’t our game tonight I think we really stuck with it,” Gustav Forsling said. “Real character win to comeback.”

The Panthers scored four unanswered goals en route to their 4-3 comeback win over one of the Western Conference’s top teams.

“The comeback’s great for the players,” Maurice said. “They get to enjoy it. But to be able to not have anything going for two periods and then get to play hard, the way we need to play, that’s a really important thing to carry with you.”

Panthers Notes

The Panthers were without defenseman Aaron Ekblad (out for at least two weeks) and forward Evan Rodrigues (day-to-day). Josh Mahura and Kyle Okposo drew in respectively for those two.

Okposo, 35, made his Panthers after being acquired at the deadline from Buffalo.

Sergei Bobrovsky had 27 saves in his 32nd win of the season.

Sam Bennett skated in his 600th NHL game — “He’s a really good guy,” Forsling said of Bennett. “He’s playing hard every single night. He gives 100 percent.”