The Dallas Stars will look to salvage a split with the Florida Panthers when the teams conclude their two-game NHL Global Series on Saturday at Tampere, Finland.
It might be hard to top the Friday game, at least from the locals’ perspective.
In the Panthers’ 6-4 victory, the teams’ seven Finnish players started at the opening puck drop. Florida captain Aleksander Barkov, a Tampere native, scored a goal and assisted on three others. His teammates and countrymen Anton Lundell and Niko Mikkola added a goal and an assist, respectively.
For the Stars, Finn Esa Lindell registered a goal and an assist.
The final score was a little bit too exciting for Florida coach Paul Maurice, who told reporters after his team’s fourth win in a row that neither he nor Dallas coach Pete DeBoer was happy to see 10 pucks hit the net.
“There was lots going on at both ends,” Maurice said. “Pete and I are going to try to bore the hell out of you (Saturday) if we can get it to that.”
Dallas, which saw its two-game winning streak end, will look to rebound from the sluggish start it encountered in its first game in six days. Florida scored in the game’s first minute, and Barkov gave his team a 2-0 lead less than eight minutes into the contest. The advantage grew to 6-2 in the third period before the Stars scored twice in the final five minutes.
DeBoer told reporters after the loss his team did not compete for the first 20 minutes, but he did not blame the lengthy time off or the festivities surrounding the series.
“They were in the sauna, too, and they showed up on time to play,” said DeBoer, who mentioned he might make lineup changes for Saturday.
As well as Barkov played Friday, another boon for the Panthers was the continued play by Lundell. The 23-year-old extended his point streak to four games with his first-period goal.
The fourth-year center has never recorded more than 44 points in any season, but he scored 17 points in 24 playoff games to help Florida win its first Stanley Cup in June. He now has 13 points through the first 12 games this season. That production helped the Panthers weather the injuries that kept Barkov out for eight games and Matthew Tkachuk out for five.
Maurice said the coaches and players noticed a change in Lundell at the beginning of training camp and that he is building off the momentum he developed in the spring.
“It’s easy to forget how young he is,” Maurice said. “He’s been in so many big, important moments in his career, and he was thrown in right away, playing some meaningful hockey early.”
As high-scoring as the Friday game turned out to be, Maurice noted that Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and his Dallas counterpart, Jake Oettinger, still made several outstanding saves.
“They actually become more dangerous as the game went on,” Maurice said about the Stars. “Like when we get the lead, that’s when they become more dangerous. Their risk profile changes just a bit. They still respect the game. That’s why they always compete for the Cup every year.”
