The line of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues combined for nine points as the Florida Panthers defeated the Dallas Stars 5-4 on Wednesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers ended a three-game home losing streak and improved to 3-1-1 in their past five games overall.
Rodrigues had two goals and two assists for a career-high-tying four points. Reinhart posted one goal and two assists, and Barkov provided one goal and one assist.
Reinhart is tied for second in the NHL with 17 goals.
The Panthers also got a goal from Carter Verhaeghe, two assists from Niko Mikkola and 29 saves by Sergei Bobrovsky.
Dallas’ Mason Marchment and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Radek Faksa and Evgenii Dadonov also score. Marchment and Dadonov are former Panthers.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger made 26 saves.
The Barkov-Reinhart-Rodrigues line dominated the first period with a pair of goals.
Dallas got one goal in between those two tallies. Sam Steel retrieved the puck behind Florida’s net before passing back to a charging Faksa, who scored with a bullet of a shot.
The Panthers extended their lead to 3-1 just 24 seconds into the second period. Sam Bennett, leading a three-on-two rush, dished to his left to Verhaeghe, who ripped in a wrist shot.
Florida, which had killed off 27 of its previous 28 penalties over the previous seven games, got burned just 39 seconds into the third period.
It started when Bennett got sent off for roughing. Five seconds later, Dallas cut its deficit to 3-2 on a goal by Marchment. Matt Duchene won the faceoff and later shoveled the puck to Marchment, who scored from point-blank range against an out-of-position Bobrovsky.
Dallas tied the score 3-3 with 15:45 left as Dadonov redirected a pass from Jani Hakanpaa.
Florida took a 4-3 lead just 37 seconds later as Oettinger lost track of the puck as it hit the back boards. Barkov located the puck and tapped it in just inside the right post.
The Panthers made it 5-3 with 12:00 left on Rodrigues’ power-play goal.
Dallas came right back on Harley’s goal with 7:34 left, but the Stars couldn’t get the equalizer.
–Field Level Media
