RECAP: Panthers 4, Stars 3 (SO)

SUNRISE, Fla. – The hockey gods know how to write a script.

Missing the last game after a close friend lost his daughter, Selah, to cancer, Brad Marchand opened the scoring and then later netted winning goal in the shootout to lift the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

“If anything, this week has taught me there’s so many incredible moments in life you just have to enjoy and not take too seriously and just kind of be in the moment,” Marchand said. “I wasn’t nervous or anything out there. It was more a great opportunity to honor Selah.”

Improving to 6-5-1, the Panthers finish their four-game homestand at 2-1-1.

Over those four games, they surrendered just four goals at 5-on-5.

“The things that we’re trying to get better at, we got much better at,” head coach Paul Maurice said of tonight’s win. “I think we were at about six and a half minutes of zone time, and that would be our best number of the year. We’ve still got some work to do, but we saw some pieces, more sustained pressure. Shot selection, we’ve got to work on a little bit.”

The first period came and went with few stoppages.

With the Panthers leading 6-5 in shots on goal, the best opportunity of the period came when Marchand was robbed of a goal by a diving paddle save from Casey DeSmith.

In the second period, Marchand fittingly opened the scoring when he ripped a wicked shot past DeSmith from the left circle in transition to put the Panthers up 1-0 at 1:48.

Immediately after the light went off, Marchand pointed up to the heavens.

“She loved hockey more than anything,” Marchand said of honoring Selah. “She got so much joy out of it, like we all do. We play it because we love it and we have fun doing it.”

Following suit soon after, Sam Reinhart took advantage of a mistake by DeSmith, firing the puck from a sharp angle off the goaltender’s pads and into the cage to make it 2-0 at 4:02.

Reaching an impressive milestone, it was the 300^th goal of Reinhart’s career.

“Hopefully there’s a few more that go in for me now,” the sniper smiled.

After the Panthers drew blood with a high stick, the Stars went to work.

Right after Wyatt Johnston blasted a one-timer past Sergei Bobrovsky on the first power play of the double minor to cut Florida’s lead to 2-1 at 14:47, Justin Hryckowian pulled the Stars even with another power-play goal a mere 14 seconds later to make it 2-2 at 15:01.

At 5-on-5, the Panthers, dominating despite the score, allowed just two scoring chances in the middle frame.

Continuing their strong play at even strength, the Panthers eventually regained the lead in the third period when Sam Bennett crashed the net and knocked in a centering feed from Gustav Forsling to make it 3-2 at 12:26.

“Samo (Mackie Samoskevich) made a great play to Forsy, and Forsy saw me heading backdoor,” Bennett said. “I couldn’t really find it, so I just kind of whacked away.”

Coming up in the clutch for the Stars, Mikko Rantanen scored the equalizer late in regulation, re-directing a pass from Sam Steel into the cage to make it 3-3 at 17:19.

Fueling the offense for Dallas, Steel dished out three assists in defeat.

Standing tall in the extra frame, Bobrovsky denied a pair of one-timers late in overtime to force the shootout.

“Serving ‘em back there for a little bit,” Maurice said.

With Bobrovsky staying hot and not allowing anything to get past him in the shootout, Marchand scored the only goal the Panthers would need in the skills competition when he entered the zone with speed before slipping the puck through DeSmith’s five-hole to lock in the 4-3 win.

“I liked our ability to continue to play our game,” said Marchand, who leads the Panthers in goals (T-6) and points (12) this season. “We knew we’d eventually break through. Overtime or shootout, it’s great to get two points.”

THEY SAID IT

“There’s some things we can work on, and we have. We’re starting to see it. Hopefully that’ll be the start of a push for us.” – Paul Maurice

“We controlled the majority of the play after the first period.” – Brad Marchand

“I think our defensive game has been really good, for the most part. We’re just going to keep building on everything.” – Sam Bennett

CATS STATS

- Sam Reinhart has scored in five straight games against the Stars.

- The Panthers earned their fifth straight win over Dallas.

- A.J. Greer posted a team-high eight hits.

- The Panthers led 27-12 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.

- Sergei Bobrovsky improved to 20-2-2 in his career against the Stars.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Back on the road they go.

Kicking off their annual trip to the Golden State, the Panthers will wrap up their season series with the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.

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