Panthers race to fast start, stay unbeaten in preseason
For their fourth preseason game, the Panthers put out what will, save for a player here or there, be their opening night lineup.
Based on Friday night, the Panthers look ready to go.
The Panthers absolutely took it to a Dallas lineup that had far fewer NHL players than Florida, scoring four goals in the opening 16 minutes before leaving FLA Live Arena with a 6-3 win.
Florida is unbeaten through its first four exhibition games — all coming against either Nashville or Dallas.
The Panthers have three more preseason games remaining before the season opener Oct. 14 against the visiting Penguins.
Florida will play Tampa Bay three times next week — once each in Orlando, Tampa and Sunrise.
Sasha Barkov got the scoring going Friday, beating Anton Khudobin with a wrist shot 1:17 into the game on Florida’s first shot of the night.
It took the Panthers a little while to get their second goal, although the floodgates quickly opened as Florida scored three within a span of six minutes to take a 4-0 lead into the first intermission.
Two defensemen who did not score last season (Markus Nutivaara and Kevin Connauton) did so against Dallas, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead.
MacKenzie Weegar, a defenseman who is more inclined to score for Florida, made it 4-0 at the 16-minute mark.
Starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky saw his first action of the preseason and didn’t have much to do in the first as Florida outshot the Stars 16-5.
Dallas did cash in on its first power play chance to open the second with Denis Gurianov driving up the goal line and blasting a shot above Bobrovsky’s shoulder.
The Panthers would get that goal back in the closing seconds of the period, however, as Jonathan Huberdeau took a Sam Bennett feed, slammed on the brakes in front of Khudobin and tapped the puck in with 11.3 seconds remaining.
Bobrovsky ended up stopping 11 of the 12 shots faced in his two periods of scheduled work.
Christopher Gibson, who helped lead the prospect-laden Florida team to victory Wednesday in Dallas, made 14 saves in the third period.
Jason Robertson and Radek Faska both scored for Dallas in the final period. Sam Reinhart ended the Florida scoring with an empty-net goal.