SUNRISE — Anton Lundell scored the shootout winner as the Panthers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Thursday night after trailing late in the third.

 

Florida moved back to first place in the NHL in the win and became the second team to win 40 games this season. 

 

“It was a good hockey game today. They didn’t give us anything easy,” Lundell said. “We knew it’s not going to be easy so we had to battle every shift.”

 

Anthony Stolarz, who played in his 100th NHL game, had 28 saves for his 11th win of the season.

 

“Who would’ve thought 25-30 years ago that you’d be here,” Stolarz said. “I’m grateful for it and at the same time [I’m] not taking it for granted.”

 

Aleksander Barkov and Nick Suzuki are both likely to finish near the top of the Selke voting at the end of the season. While they are known for their defensive abilities, the two captains exchanged goals in the first. 

 

Barkov opened the scoring with his 14th goal of the season 7:01 into the first. Suzuki answered under 90 seconds later, making it 1-1. Both players finished the night with a goal and two assists. 

 

Sam Reinhart was on a bit of a cold streak going into Thursday night’s game. He was riding a seven-game goalless streak — the longest of the year.

 

Sitting on 39 goals for over two weeks, Reinhart finally broke the ice, becoming the fourth player in Panthers history to score 40 goals in a season on Thursday. 

 

With 5:52 left in the second period, Reinhart beat Canadiens’ goalie Sam Montembeault for his 40th. 

 

“It’s felt like a long time,” Reinhart said. “It’s nice to get back in the scoresheet, to get another win, especially before going on the road. We’ve got a couple of big games coming up.”

 

There have been five 40-goal seasons in Panthers history; Pavel Bure did it twice (1999-00, 2000-01), while Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe both did it last season (2022-23). 

 

Up 2-1 near the end of the second period, the Panthers were just one faceoff away from taking a one-goal lead into the intermission. 

 

Juraj Slafkovsky didn’t let that happen. 

 

With 0.7 seconds left in the period, Suzuki won the draw straight to Slafkovsky and the Habs’ 19-year-old forward fired a shot past Panthers’ goalie Anthony Stolarz for his 13th goal of the season. 

 

Montreal would carry the momentum of Slafkovsky’s late goal out of the intermission and they grabbed their first lead of the night early in the third. 

 

On the power play, Alex Newhook beat Stolarz up high for his ninth goal of the season, 3:27 into the third. 

 

Three goals against has been an unusual sight for the Panthers as of late. Montreal became the first team to put more than two goals in the Panthers’ net since Minnesota scored six on Jan. 18. Florida went 14 straight games conceding two or fewer goals before Thursday night. 

 

Montreal would keep hold of their lead late into the third — and the way the period was trending — it looked as if they were going to sneak out of Sunrise with the two points. 

 

After scoring his 40th and snapping his goal drought, Sam Reinhart got his team back in the game when they needed him the most. 

 

Leading by one with just over seven minutes left in regulation, Montreal looked to ice the game on the power play. 

 

But, Reinhart didn’t hear a bell.

 

Barkov intercepted a pass at center ice and carried the transition rush alongside Reinhart.

 

Reinhart tucked away his second goal of the night and 41st of the season right under the bar, tying the game with 6:55 to go in regulation. 

 

“He impacts everything we do,” head coach Paul Maurice said of Reinhart. “There’s just very few men in the history of the game who get the 40-goal mark. It’s a huge accomplishment. He’s earned it.” 

 

The two teams remained tied after regulation and finished overtime the same way. 

 

Aleksander Barkov and Cole Caufield both scored in the shootout for their teams before Anton Lundell got the game winner and the extra point for Florida. 

 

The Panthers will hit the road for their next three games before returning home on March 7 against Philadelphia.

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers jumped up to first place in the NHL on Tuesday night after defeating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 at Amerant Bank Arena.

 

The Panthers are winners of their last five games on home ice and are 39-16-4 on the season. 

 

Sergei Bobrovsky had 28 saves in his 29th win of the season — third most in the league.

 

“It’s a good win for us,” Bobrovsky said. “Another different opponent, they had lots of skill… It was a good challenge for us.”

 

Dylan Cozens opened the scoring with a power play goal, 9:25 into the first — putting the Sabres up early on the road. 

 

Despite conceding first, the Panthers wouldn’t trail for too long. Sam Bennett tied the game with his 14th goal of the season, less than four minutes after Cozens’ goal.

 

Matthew Tkachuk gave Florida their first lead of the night 13:56 into the first period, with his 21st goal of the season. Tkachuk returned to the lineup on Tuesday night after missing Florida’s last game with an upper-body injury. 

 

Tkachuk continues to be an offensive force, since the start of January. In his last 22 games he has 40 points — third most in the NHL.

 

“The path that Matthew took to points this year was really important because he didn’t cheat the game early on when he wasn’t scoring,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “There was no selfishness, he was fine with it. He truly was when he talked to us.”

 

Brandon Montour had a big night on the scoresheet, scoring the game-winning goal and picking up two assists on Tuesday. Montour had just 12 points in the first 38 games of the season. He has 10 points in his past five games — three of them being multi-point nights.

 

Tage Thompson kept the Sabres in the game late in the third, cutting the deficit to one with 7:56 to go in regulation, but the comeback effort fell short. 

 

The Panthers have been outstandingly consistent on the defensive side of play since the middle of January — conceding two or fewer goals in 14 straight games. 

 

“We do have a lot of really good offensive players in here, but at the end of the day defense wins,” Tkachuk said. “We’re all so committed to that, especially after last year. Learning that style, playing it over and over and over again. It’s kind of just in our brains now.”

 

Panthers Notes 

Carter Verhaeghe left the game in the third period, he took a “puck to the face” and will be ok, per Maurice

 

Kevin Stenlund also returned to the ice Tuesday after missing the last game against Washington

 

Florida’s next game is Thursday, Feb. 29 at home against Montreal

Sebastain Aho scored the only goal of the game with 19 seconds left in regulation to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 1-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night in Raleigh.

 

Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov had 44 saves, picking up his third shutout of the season. 

 

Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky saved 28 of 29 shots in what was his first loss in his past eight starts.

 

In the win, the Hurricanes were able to snap the Panthers six-game win streak and 11-game road win streak.

 

Florida drops to 37-16-4 with the loss, trailing Boston by one point for first place in the Eastern Conference. Carolina improved to 34-17-5 with the victory. 

 

“It came down to 19 seconds. That’s a playoff game, there’s no doubt about it,”  Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Those are two teams colliding that play almost the exact same way. There’s almost no room out there for anybody… It was a hard fought game.”

 

The Panthers thought they took the late lead with 3:21 to go when Eetu Luostarinen scored after redirecting Niko Mikkola’s pass, one-handed, into the goal. Carolina would win a successful coach’s challenge — which determined the play was offside.

 

Seconds before Aho’s game-winner, Aaron Ekblad nearly put the Panthers in the driver’s seat, but he hit the post with his shot from the slot.

 

“I think it was a good game by both teams,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Obviously we know how they play, they know how we play… There’s been a couple of those games already against them.”

 

Despite losing, the biggest concern for the Panthers on Thursday was regarding the health of two of their top players who were injured in Carolina. Forward Matthew Tkachuk and defenseman Gustav Forsling both left the game in the first period and did not return after getting banged up.

 

Tkachuk took a hard hit from Andrei Svechnikov in the upper-body while Forsling left the game also left the game with an undisclosed injury. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said that both players are probably day-to-day and will be reevaluated on Friday when the team returns to South Florida. 

 

“I don’t think it’s too significant,” Maurice said postgame. “We’re always careful with anything like that night. 

 

Following this quick one-game road trip, the Panthers will be back on home ice Saturday to face the Washington Capitals at Amerant Bank Arena Sunrise.

Saturday afternoon saw the Battle of Florida return and the boys from South Florida won it in dominating fashion, with the Florida Panthers smoking the Tampa Bay Lightning 9-2 at Amalie Arena. 

 

After conceding just 24 seconds into the game, the Panthers played the rest of the game like they were the only team on the ice. They scored six unanswered goals against Lightning starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and then an additional three on goalie Jonas Johansson. 

 

Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett both had four-point nights, Carter Verhaeghe scored his 30th of the season and Kevin Stenlund had the game winner way back in the first period.

 

The Panthers have won their past five games and also extended their road winning streak to 11 on Saturday.  

 

Sergei Bobrovsky had 28 saves in his 27th win of the season. Florida improved to 36-15-4, jumping Boston for sole possession of first place in the East. 

 

Here’s Saturday’s takeaways.

 

Verhaeghe reaches consecutive 30-goal seasons

In his three seasons with the Panthers, Carter Verhaeghe has quickly turned into one of the best goal scorers in the National Hockey League.

 

Verhaeghe scored twice on Saturday to reach the 30-goal mark on the season. He became the second Panthers player to reach that number this season (Sam Reinhart was first).

 

The 28-year-old forward has scored 30 goals in back-to-back seasons, becoming just the fourth player in franchise history to do so. Last season, Verhaeghe scored 42 goals in 81 games.

 

“I’m playing with some pretty great players,” Verhaeghe responded when asked about his 30 goals. “It’s a good accomplishment, but obviously not the main goal.”

 

Verhaeghe is on pace to score 44 goals. His career-high is 42 (2022-23). 

 

Second-line drives the offense again, Verhaeghe adds

The Panthers get offense up and down the line up, which was evident on Saturday with 13 different players recording at least a point against the Lightning. 

 

As of late, a main driver has been the second line of Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett.

 

Carter Verhaeghe also joined the fold against Tampa. (* An earlier version of this article didn’t separate Verhaeghe from the second line. He played on line 1 on Saturday)

 

On Saturday, all three players scored two goals. Bennett and Tkachuk led all skaters with four points each, while Verhaeghe finished with three.

 

Bennett snapped a six-game point drought in the win. 

 

“We played hard and we played right to the end,” Bennett said. “We weren’t gonna take our foot off the gas.”

 

Tkachuk remains the NHL’s leading scorer in 2024 with 37 points in 19 games. The Panthers forward has 18 multi-point games this season — Saturday being his third, four-point game. 

 

“Point wise he’s tearing it up right now. But I think the whole season, whether he’s on the scoresheet or not, he’s a key player for us,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said of Tkachuk. “On-ice obviously everyone sees what he’s doing. Off-ice he’s the leader. He does everything right.”

 

Lightning score first, score last, Panthers stack nine in between

Nine goals by a single team is about as “in your face” as a box score can get. Yet, if you watched just the first 30 seconds of Saturday’s game, you’d think Tampa would be the team to run away with it. 

 

Brandon Hagel scored just 24 seconds into the game on Tampa’s first shot — giving the Lightning an early 1-0 lead. 

 

The Panthers didn’t let the extremely early deficit get to them though.  

 

After conceding Florida scored nine unanswered goals; four in the first period, two in the second and three more in the third before Tampa finally got a second past Sergei Bobrovsky. 

 

“They started hot in the first shift scoring the goal but we bounced back really quick,” Barkov said. “[We got] a couple goals, got a good lead there and Bob was amazing again. It was a great team win.”

 

Bobrovsky has given up two or less goals in his last six starts — all of those being wins. 

 

“Goaltending has been very, very good,” head coach Paul Maurice said.

 

Panthers Notes

Brandon Montour had a goal and two assists

 

Gustav Forsling had a goal and an assist

 

Jonah Gadjovich and two fights and a misconduct

 

Kevin Stenlund had a goal, Ryan Lomberg an assist

 

Josh Mahura drew into the lineup for Aaron Ekblad (lower-body) — Ekblad is day-to-day

Four days removed from their last game against Colorado, the Florida Panthers put forth another dominating performance as they returned to the ice Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, defeating the Penguins 5-2.

 

Aaron Ekblad’s third goal of the season ended up being the game winner for the Panthers.

 

Matthew Tkachuk led all skaters with three points (goal, two assists) and Anton Lundell had a season-high two goals in the game. 

 

Florida improved to 34-15-4 with the victory and have won seven of their last eight games. Sergei Bobrovsky picked up his 26th win of the season and is 12-1-1 since Dec. 23. 

 

Here’s a few takeaways from the win. 

 

Mambo No. 5 second period

The opening frame of Wednesday night’s game didn’t have much action — with just seven shots and no goals between the two sides.

 

After an uneventful first, the second period was a complete 180.

 

Florida scored four unanswered goals in the period from Matthew Tkachuk, Jonah Gadjovich, Aaron Ekblad and Anton Lundell. 

 

This all came after Pittsburgh appeared to take a 1-0 lead before the Panthers won a successful coach’s challenge as there was a missed stoppage due to a high-stick leading up to the goal. 

 

After winning the challenge and killing off the remainder of a penalty, Tkachuk and Gadjovich scored just 34 seconds apart — swinging all the momentum into the Panthers’ favor.  

 

“I didn’t love the first three or four minutes of the second period for us,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “Then we come off that kill with a goal and that kind of loosened the game up a little bit for us.”

 

Pittsburgh was able to finally get on the board and end Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout campaign 15:24 into the period off of Jake Guentzel’s 23rd goal of the season. 

 

The Panthers would end up challenging this goal as well for goaltender interference, but the Penguins wouldn’t suffer the same fate as they did earlier in the period — the goal would stand. 

 

When the buzzer rang to end the middle frame, Florida led 4-1. 

 

Fourth-line contributes again 

Just last week in Sunrise, Florida’s depth forwards played a huge role in their 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals. Ryan Lomberg scored the game winner on just his third goal of the season.

 

On Wednesday in Pittsburgh, the fourth-line struck again — this time Jonah Gadjovich got in on the action. 

 

Gadjovich scored just his second goal of the season 5:02 in the second to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead at the time. 

 

While the trio of Lomberg, Gadjovich and Kevin Stenlund aren’t an offensive heavy unit compared to some of the other lines on the Panthers, they play a hard forechecking game and at times, it has paid off this season.

 

Big night for Lundell 

Anton Lundell hasn’t had too many multi-point games, with just four coming this season. On Wednesday, the 22-year-old showed up with his best offensive game of the year.

 

Lundell scored twice against the Penguins — picking up his fifth and sixth goals of the season. 

 

This was Lundell’s first multi-goal game since Mar. 30, 2023 — which was last season against the Montreal Canadiens. 

 

“Always good to get a win and of course it feels pretty good to get two goals,” Lundell said.

 

Entering Wednesday, Lundell was held off the score sheet in the past five games — last scoring Jan. 24 against the Arizona Coyotes. 

 

Lundell has put up 20 points in 49 games this season.

 

Panthers Notes

The Panthers will be back on the ice on Thursday in Buffalo for the second half of the back-to-back. 

 

Florida was a perfect 4/4 on the penalty kill and 1/2 on the power play: “Big penalty kills will find a way to give you momentum,” Ekblad said. “The way we responded and came out and got some goals was huge.”

 

Sam Reinhart returns to Buffalo, where he was drafted second overall in 2014. He is one goal away from 40 on the season.

 

Evan Rodrigues had two assists against his former team in Pittsburgh