Rodrigues has 4 points for Panthers in win against Stars

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Evan Rodrigues had two goals and two assists for the Florida Panthers in a 5-4 win against the Dallas Stars at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday.

It was the second time this season Rodrigues had four points; he also had two goals and two assists against the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 14.

“Our message in pregame was we knew this would feel like a playoff game, because that is a great team over there,” Rodrigues said. “We wanted to treat it like the playoffs, limit momentum swings, and we did a great job with that.”

Sam Reinhart had a goal and two assists, and Carter Verhaeghe scored for the third straight game for the Panthers (15-8-2), who lost their previous three home games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves.

“We needed it,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We have been doing the right things for a while. That was Evan Rodrigues’ best performance and we can talk about the four points, but I just liked all the other things he did.”

Mason Marchment and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist for the Stars (14-7-3), who have lost three of four (1-2-1). Jake Oettinger made 26 saves.

Dallas, which lost 4-0 at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday, will try to salvage the finale of a three-game road trip at the Washington Capitals on Thursday.

“Tough game,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “You had two good teams going at it. I thought momentum shifted a number of different times. We got off to a great start, [but] they found a way to get the first goal and took it for a little while. Then we pushed back. It’s tough. You can’t give up five goals on the road. That is a big ask to score that much.”

Rodrigues gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 4:39 of the first period with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle after a stretch pass from Niko Mikkola.

Radek Faksa tied it 1-1 at 13:42, one-timing a feed from Craig Smith in the left circle after a turnover by Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.

Reinhart put the Panthers back in front 2-1 at 18:14 on a rebound off the end boards, and Verhaeghe extended the lead to 3-1 just 24 seconds into the second period with a one-timer from Sam Bennett in the left circle.

Marchment scored on a power play 39 seconds into the third period off a pass from Matt Duchene (two assists) to cut it to 3-2.

Evgenii Dadonov tied it 3-3 at 4:15, knocking in a pass from Jani Hakanpaa.

“We were close in that game. Even down 3-1, we felt like we were right there,” Dadonov said. "We actually do come back and then unfortunately give up another two goals. It was up and down. We had to push it and when we got those two goals, maybe we relaxed. It was tough.”

Barkov put Florida back in front 4-3 just 37 seconds later at 4:52 on Reinhart’s rebound off the end boards, and Rodrigues made it 5-3 on a power play at 8:00.

“I was just going to the net and the puck was there,” Barkov said. “It was, pretty much, like an empty net. When we shoot the puck and move in the offensive zone, all sorts of chances will be there.”

Harley scored on a power play at 12:26 when his point shot trickled past Bobrovsky for the 5-4 final.

NOTES: Rodrigues became the second player to have two four-point games in his first 25 with the Panthers, joining Kris Versteeg (2011-12). Rodrigues, Barkov and Reinhart combined for nine points and were each plus-3. … It was Reinhart’s 12th multipoint game this season; only New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin has more (13). … Florida is 10-0-2 when scoring first. … Verhaeghe has four goals in his past five games. … Hakanpaa had one assist, five hits and two blocked shots in 17:06 of ice time. … Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen had one assist and led all skaters in ice time (28:02).