The Florida Panthers responded to one of their worst games of the season with one of their best.
Florida was throttled on Thursday night in Colorado against the NHL-best Avalanche, but he Cats bounced back in a big way against the Dallas Stars, who are second-best in the league behind the Avs.
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A stingy Panthers squad held Dallas to just 15 shots on goal, skating away with a 4-0 victory.
The game started out with a playoff-like feel, as both teams were on their toes and tightly checking the other.
Ten minutes in, the Panthers had the game’s only shot on goal and Dallas had blocked all six of Florida’s other attempts.
The Stars, meanwhile, picked up their first shot on their sixth attempt at the 10:08 mark, coming off the stick of veteran Matt Duchene.
After a first period in which the Cats and Stars logged only two shots apiece, Florida broke the ice with a goal on the first shift of the middle frame.
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Anton Lundell cut through the middle of the ice with the puck and to Jake Oettinger’s net, keeping the puck on his stick just long enough to outwait the goaltender and sneak in a shot as he crossed over the goal line at the 19 second mark of period two.
Florida picked up a second goal after an extended shift in Dallas’ zone when Sam Bennett used his skate to deflect a rebound of a Carter Verhaeghe shot into the net at the 5:45 mark.
A late period power play for the Panthers would yield goal number three.
Sam Reinhart made a gorgeous, no-look backhand pass to the right circle, where Brad Marchand one-timed the puck past Oettinger to send Florida into the intermission with a commanding 3-0 lead.
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Marchand added an empty-net goal with 2:48 to go, after Dallas had pulled Oettinger with just under six minutes on the clock in a final act of desperation.
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 15 saves, including the Stars’ six high danger shots, for his third shutout of the season and second straight impressive win on this road trip.
Florida has now taken two of three on their four-game roadie and another point or two on Monday will go a long way toward the Panthers starting to feel pretty good about the on-ice product they’ve been putting out lately.
As it stands, the Cats have won four of their past five and have points in five of six.
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On to Tampa.
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Photo caption: Dec 13, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Florida Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe (23) and center Sam Bennett (9) and left wing Brad Marchand (63) celebrates a goal scored by Bennett against the Dallas Stars during the second period at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)
