"Some good road victories here, but we want to keep it going," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "We're not satisfied just being OK on the road -- we want to be great."
Leading the charge against the Wild in their last outing, Mason Marchment recorded his first-career hat trick, Aaron Ekblad, Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky, who will start against the Blackhawks this afternoon, turned aside 24 of 26 shots.
One of the top-possession teams in the NHL, the Panthers, who own a league-best 56.09 CF% at even-strength this season, were very strong at 5-on-5 against the Wild, finishing with sizeable advantages in both shot attempts (53-30) and scoring chances (26-15), per Natural Stat Trick.
"I really liked our game," Brunette said. "I didn't feel as comfortable during the game. I thought they came out fast and we were a twitch slow early in the game and took some penalties. But I thought our engine got going later and then the rest of the game we did the things we like to do."
Giving the Panthers time to find their footing, Bobrovsky was on top of his game from the start.
Stopping six of the seven high-danger shots he faced between the pipes, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner improved to 25-4-3 on the season. On a personal five-game winning streak, he's posted a 10-1-0 record with a .922 save percentage and one shutout over his last 11 contests.
"He's been great all year long," Brunette said.
In the hunt for the Art Ross Trophy, Jonathan Huberdeau, who tallied two assists against the Wild, leads the Panthers and ranks third in the NHL in scoring with 68 points (17 goals, 51 assists), including posting one goal and nine assists during his active six-game point streak.
The only team in the league scoring an average of more than four goals per game, Florida's lineup features a league-best nine players with at least 10 goals this season, with Aleksander Barkov (22), Sam Bennett (21) and Anthony Duclair (20) all recording more than 20 thus far.
Chicago, however, has struggled to put the puck in the back of the net.
Owning the league's 30th-ranked offense with an average of 2.37 goals per contests, the Blackhawks have lost 11 of their last 13 games while scoring two-or-fewer goals in seven of those games, including a 1-0 shootout loss against the Stars in their latest outing on Friday.
That being said, Chicago does possess a pair of dangerous scorers in Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat, who have each already surpassed the 40-point mark this season. Kane ranks first on the team in both assists (35) and points (47), while DeBrincat has scored the most goals (25).
Former Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury has earned the lion's share of starts in Chicago's net, posting a 16-17-4 record with a .912 save percentage and four shutouts.
In Friday's shootout loss to Dallas, he stopped all 29 shots he faced in regulation and overtime.
While the Blackhawks sit at just 18-25-8, the Panthers, who occupy first place in the Atlantic Division at 34-10-5, know they can't take their opponent lightly as they look to sweep their trip.
"There's a target on our back, so we've got to bring our A-game every single night," Panthers forward Noel Acciari said. "To be able to finish our trip with six [total] points would be huge."
In 2020-21, Florida owned a 6-2-0 record against Chicago.
