The Florida Panthers will try for a season-best four-game winning streak on Sunday night when they complete a back-to-back road set against the Dallas Stars.
The Panthers have won three consecutive games for the third time this season following a dominant 4-1 victory at St. Louis on Saturday night.
But Florida has beaten only two teams (Carolina and Winnipeg) that currently would make the playoffs in either conference.
Brady Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist and Jakob Markstrom would have secured the team’s second shutout of the season had Blues’ left winger Dylan Holloway not scored a power play goal with 2:06 left in the third. Markstrom stopped 23 of 24 shots.
Matthew Tkachuk had an assist to join his brother on the scoresheet on a night in which their father, Keith, was honored pregame. It was Brady’s sixth multi-point game of the season and Matthew extended his point streak to seven.
Matthew Tkachuk continues to pace the Panthers with 29 points while Sam Reinhart, who also scored his 700th career point against St. Louis on Saturday, has a team-high 12 goals.
“A great leader for us and more and more vocal with (captain Aleksander) Barkov being out on the bench,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “(Reinhart) has a really good sense of where our game is at and where the team is at. He’s such a bright man and our players and coaches rely on him.”
With the back-to-back, Akira Schmid will get the start in goal against the Stars. Schmid is 6-3-1 with a 3.10 goals-against average in 10 starts. Dallas likely will go with Casey DeSmith, who is 1-2-1 with a 2.70 GAA in five games including four starts.
The Stars rebounded after their worst loss of the season on Thursday against Winnipeg. Dallas gave up a season-high eight goals in an 8-3 loss on home ice.
It was a completely different story on Saturday night as Dallas blanked the visiting Buffalo Sabres 2-0.
Jake Oettinger, who was pulled early in the third period against Winnipeg, saved all 22 shots he faced and recorded his NHL-best fourth shutout as well as the 20th of his career.
It was a historic night for captain Jamie Benn, who recorded his 1,000th career point when he broke a scoreless stalemate with 3:37 left in the second period.
Wyatt Johnston sealed the win with a power-play goal with 42 seconds left off assists from Mikko Rantanen and Roope Hintz. Rantanen bounced back with a point after being held scoreless against Winnipeg. It was only the second time Rantanen was held without a point in his previous 12 games. Rantanen’s 22 points leads the Stars and he is tied with Jason Robertson with a team-best nine goals.
Dallas’ penalty kill went 5-for-5 as well after allowing a power-play goal in each of its previous two games.
“Kind of getting back in the saddle of the way we want to play,” Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought we did a really good job. I thought we were really good through two [periods], and didn’t give them much. It’s hard to keep a team down the whole night. Penalty kill was great. [Oettinger] was great. Jamie’s 1,000th makes it a special night for me. No peace though, we have to move on to tomorrow.”
-Field Level Media
