5 TAKEAWAYS: Stars 5, Panthers 1

DALLAS --The Florida Panthers saw their winning streak snapped at two games with a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Sunday.
With the loss, Florida now sits at 18-19-4.
"We're not where we want to be, of course, in the standings," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. "Over the last two weeks -- maybe the last four games -- we've been talking a lot and we've been working a lot harder in the games. Our effort has been really, really good in those games. We've just got to stay with that."
For a quick recap of the game, click
HERE
.
To read up on five key takeaways for the Cats, continue below.

1. VERHAEGHE NETS ANOTHER

Verhaeghe might have a 40-goal season in his future.
With half the season officially in the books, the speedy sniper is currently sitting on 19 goals after burying a rebound to cut Florida's deficit to 2-1 in the second period against the Stars.

"They're a physical team, they're good at home and they're a good defensive team," Verhaeghe said of Dallas. "We played hard, but we fell short. It's obviously not good enough on the power play, special teams and stuff. We fell short."
Finding success in his usual spot alongside Barkov on the top line, Verhaeghe is also poised to surpass the career-high 55 points (24 goals, 31 assists) he recorded in 2021-22. With 41 games left to go this season, he's already produced 32 points (19 goals, 13 assists).
Verhaeghe ranks second on the Panthers in even-strength points with 25 and is tied for first in even-strength goals with 15.

2. OETTINGER STANDS TALL

Jake Oettinger was on top of his game against the Panthers.
After stopping all 15 shots that he faced in the first period to give the Stars time to settle in, Oettinger went on to finish with 27 saves on 28 shots to improve his own record to 18-6-3.
"He was our best player, that's exactly the story," Stars head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters. "The goalie gave us a chance to get our legs under us. We got some timely goals, and we won the special teams battle, which is critical and a big piece of what we've done all year."
With Oettinger denying all eight high-danger shots that came in his direction, Verhaeghe said the Panthers needed to do a better job of challenging the netminder and getting pucks on net.
"He's a good goalie for a reason, but we need to make it more difficult and shoot the puck," Verhaeghe said. "When we get chances we've got to bear down and bury pucks. We've got to work on it in practice. We're a really talented team, so we've just got to find a way to bury it."

3. COMING OUT STRONG

The Panthers didn't deserve to come up empty handed after 20 minutes.
Despite trailing 1-0 heading into the first intermission, the Panthers led 25-15 in shot attempts, 13-6 in scoring chances and 8-4 in high-danger shot attempts, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
Factoring in those numbers, Florida generated 2.28 expected goals.
"Our effort was there," Barkov said. "I think the first and second period we played well enough to maybe come out with the leader after the second period, but I feel like they just got the goals and confidence and shut it down in the third period."
With early leads more important than ever this season, the Panthers own a 14-3-2 record when leading after the first period this season, but have gone just 0-11-1 when trailing after the first.

4. ROBERTSON'S NIGHT

Like every team in the NHL, the Panthers had some trouble with Jason Robertson.
In the conversation for the Hart Trophy at the midway point of the season, the 23-year-old forward netted his 27th and 28th goals of the season against the Panthers.
After firing home his own rebound to make it 1-0 in the first period, he buried a breakaway to make it 4-1 in the third.
"I got a lot of Grade-A looks tonight," Robertson told reporters. "When you get that many, your confidence starts to feel good, especially when you get one early and just start hammering away."
A point-per-game player in his career against the Panthers, Robertson has racked up eight goals and four assists over 12 head-to-head matchups with Florida. During the two-game season series in 2022-23, he produced two goals and one assist.

5. THE TURNING POINT

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said there was a noticeable turning point against the Stars.
Just 39 seconds after Verhaeghe cut the deficit to 2-1 for the Panthers in the second period, Esa Lindell took a pass from Jamie Benn and scored from the slot to put the Stars up 3-1.
From that point on, Florida had just five more shots on goal, including only three in the third period.
"We really liked our game to 2-1, and then when they made it 3-1 I really didn't like our game after that," Maurice said. "We absolutely stopped skating, and that was the driving for us early through the 3-1 goal. After that, we tried to do it a different way. … I'm not sure what we were trying to do, but we stopped moving our feet. You can't play the game if you're not skating."
Keeping things pretty clean in front of Oettinger, Dallas blocked 17 shots in the game as well.