The Florida Panthers looked right at home while on the road in Finland.
Florida extended their road winning streak to six games, taking down the Dallas Stars 6-4 in the first of two NHL Global Series games in Tampere, Finland.
There are four Finnish players on the Panthers roster: Sasha Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola.
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Barkov played a big part in Florida’s fast start, picking up an assist on Evan Rodrigues’ goal just 28 seconds into the game.
Rodrigues returned the favor about seven minutes later, sending a cross-ice pass to Barkov that the Finnish star wired past the glove of Jake Oettinger to give the Cats a 2-0 lead.
Tyler Seguin got the Stars on the scoreboard midway through the first, and he did it from a place few people can score from.
Seguin fired a shot from below the goal line, inside the trapezoid where goalies aren’t allowed to touch the puck, and it went directly off the inside skate of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and into the net.
A late-period Panthers power play led to the Cats’ third goal of the game, and it came off the stick of another one of Florida’s Finns.
This time it was Hensinki native Anton Lundell. He deflected another Ekblad point shot past Oettinger to put the Panthers up 3-1.
Esa Lindell, one of the Stars’ Finnish players, brought Dallas back within one of the Panthers after scoring 92 seconds into the second period. A Stars power play a few minutes later threatened to put momentum squarely in Dallas’ favor, but Sam Reinhart took care of that by cashing in with a shorthanded goal.
Rookie Mackie Samoskevich scored for the second time in three games early in the third to put Florida up 5-2, one-timing a puck that had been dumped into the Stars zone and catching Oettinger by surprise.
Dallas scored a pair of goal in the final minutes, which will likely stick in the Cats’ craw between this game and Saturday’s matchup.
On to game two of the NHL Global Series.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Rodrigues finished with a goal and an assist, his first points since the third game of the season.
There have been 12 games this season and Reinhart has logged multi-point outings in half of them. He’s up to nine goals and 19 points this year.
Reinhart also now has three shorthanded goals this season. Again, in 12 games.
Barkov has picked up six points in the two games he’s played since returning from an eight-game absence. He had a goal and three assists against Dallas.
Aaron Ekblad matched his season total with three assists on Friday.
Bennett has points in six straight games after picking up an assist, but saw his goal-scoring streak end at five games.
Lundell also stayed hot, scoring his sixth goal of the season. He’s now got points in four straight and has accumulated 13 on the year.
Florida improved to 5-0 when leading after the first period and 6-0 when leading after two.
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