The Florida Panthers have had a nice run of success against the Dallas Stars over the past few seasons, something Paul Maurice was reminded of Saturday before the two meet again.
The Panthers have won their past five against Dallas including two in Finland last season, and in a shootout in November.
What Maurice recalled was a come-from-behind win in 2024.
Dallas held a 3-0 lead in that game after getting 10 rush chances in the first period.
Florida ended up getting a pair of goals from Sasha Barkov as well as one each from Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk and won 4-3.
The Panthers will likely need a similar outing from Sergei Bobrovsky tonight; the Stars bring plenty of speed, something Florida did not handle too well Thursday against the Avalanche.
“The games in Finland were different, I liked the way we played in both of them. Thought we were pretty strong,’’ Maurice said. “The game we won in here, down 3-0, came back. Sergei had about 15 A-chances — half of them coming off the rush or 2-on-1s. We employed that method in Colorado, and we’re going to try and avoid it tonight.’’
Florida would like nothing more than to flush that 6-2 loss to the Avalanche and Maurice said tonight is a fresh start.
“You usually get a pretty good reset after those games,’’ Maurice said. “No one is happy with those, you just want to get it over with, get it off you. But a speed game like that is good to play against as a reminder that we were just behind it. We were behind it and late. Our D was trying to stand up, our forwards weren’t cutting back far enough. We just were not very good.’’
NOTEBOOK: PANTHERS AT STARS
The Stars have not allowed a power-play goal in their last 10 games dating to Nov. 25 against the Edmonton Oilers, going a perfect 32-for-32. Dallas is the only team in the NHL to be perfect on the penalty kill since Nov. 25, and the run is the longest penalty-killing streak by any NHL team this season.
Starting Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky returns after getting the win in Utah on Wednesday night. Dallas will go with Jake Oettinger.
How to Watch/Stream: The Panthers are back on local TV tonight; The game can be streamed at Panthers+ and ESPN+.
NHL Betting Odds: The Stars are favorites (-135) on the money line at the local book. To win with the Stars, a $135 bet pays $100. If you bet the Panthers on the money line (+115), a $100 wager wins $115 if Florida pulls this out.
ON DECK: GAME 31
FLORIDA PANTHERS at DALLAS STARSÂ
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (15-13-2) LINES
27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 63 Brad MarchandÂ
10 A.J. Greer // 17 Evan Rodrigues // 11 Mackie Samoskevich
70 Jesper Boqvist // 53 Jack Studnicka // 18 Noah Gregor
42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad
77 Niko Mikkola // 3 Seth Jones
26 Uvis Balinskis // 2 Jeff Petry
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
40 Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Luke Kunin, Donovan Sebrango
Returned to Charlotte: Jack Devine
Injured: Sasha Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Cole Schwindt (broken arm)
PROJECTED DALLAS STARS (21-6-5) LINES
18 Sam Steel // 53 Wyatt Johnston // 96 Mikko Rantanen
21 Jason Robertson // 24 Roope Hintz // 14 Jamie Benn
49 Justin Hryckowian // 95 Matt Duchene // 22 Mavrik Bourque
10 Oskar Back // 12 Radek Faksa // 15 Colin Blackwell
23 Esa Lindell // 4 Miro Heiskanen
55 Thomas Harley // 28 Alexander Petrovic
20 Kyle Capobianco // 46 Ilya Lybushkin
29 Jake Oettinger
1 Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Nathan Bastian
Injured: Tyler Seguin (ACL), Matt Duchene (upper body), Adam Erne (lower body), Thomas Harley (lower body), Nils Lundkvist (illness), Lian Bichsel (lower body)
