The promotion came with a multi-year contract extension, the terms of which were not revealed by the reigning Eastern Conference champions.

Zito’s arrival four years ago sparked a massive turnaround by the Panthers, who have made the playoffs in all four of his seasons leading the front office — a streak unlike any other in club history — and have won more than half their games in all four of those seasons. In the 26 seasons before Zito, Florida had a total of three seasons where it won more than 50% of its games.

“Obviously on a personal level, I’m thrilled and honored,” Zito said. “And I’m grateful to be able to continue to try to keep building and keep pursuing the goal of making this a destination franchise.”

It’s another example of the Panthers locking up talent for years to come, with one of owner Vincent Viola’s mandates being to assure the fan base that what’s being built in Florida is being built to last for many years.

Among those in Florida with long-term deals: Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling, coach Paul Maurice, and now, the guy who got all those contracts done with the Panthers.

“From his first day as a Panther, Bill has demonstrated his complete commitment to success both on and off the ice. He has worked steadfastly and tirelessly to establish a new standard of excellence for our franchise,” Viola said. “The future has never looked brighter in South Florida and we are thrilled that Bill will continue to lead the way.”

Florida has the fifth-best record in the NHL during Zito’s tenure, plus leads the league in comeback wins, overtime wins and shots on goal. The Panthers are tied with Edmonton for No. 2 in the NHL in goals over Zito’s four seasons entering Monday; they have 1,073, three less than Colorado had.

Also under Zito, a two-time GM of the year finalist: The Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2022 and went to the Stanley Cup Final last season.

“Under Bill’s leadership we have seen renewed fan excitement, consistent playoff appearances and a sustained culture of success,” Panthers alternate governor Michael Viola said. “Through this extension, we are recommitting to stability and strength at the heart of our organization, and the continued growth of our sport throughout Broward County and South Florida.”

Reinhart got his 55th goal of the season with 1:02 left in overtime, and the Panthers clinched home ice for at least Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs by beating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in the next-to-last regular-season game for both teams on Saturday.

“We’re excited about the challenge ahead,” Reinhart said. “It’s starting for real pretty soon. Do what you can to get home-ice advantage. That’s the beauty of playoffs; at the end of the day, it’s a battle, it’s a war, Game 1. And we’re looking forward to that.”

Reinhart took a pass from Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and delivered the winner. Anton Lundell and Kevin Stenlund also scored for Florida, and Matthew Tkachuk had an assist — his 60th of the season, the third straight year he’s had that many.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for Florida, getting the win in his 700th career game. He’s the 32nd goalie in league history to hit that milestone, and one of three still active.

“An incredible accomplishment,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Tyson Jost and Jack Quinn scored for Buffalo, which got 39 saves from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres got a point off Florida for only the second time in the teams’ last 11 meetings; they’re 1-9-1 in that span.

Florida had a 5-minute power play in the third after Buffalo defenseman Connor Clifton was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Panthers’ center Nick Cousins. But the Panthers got nothing past Luukkonen, who stopped seven shots to preserve what was a 2-2 tie.

The Sabres came through with another penalty kill with the game on the line. Buffalo’s Alex Tuch took a high-sticking penalty with 34.9 seconds left in regulation. Florida didn’t get a shot on goal before the third period expired, then had a 4-on-3 advantage to begin overtime as the power play continued — and the Sabres thwarted them again.

“The penalty kill was very good and looked very confident,” Sabres coach Don Granato said.

The teams combined to score four goals — two for Florida, two for Buffalo — in a 6:49 span of the first period, all on seven combined shots. It was 2-2 by the midpoint of that opening period, making it seem like a wild one was brewing.

But there was no more scoring until the end.

Jost was credited with his first goal since Dec. 2 when he deflected a shot by Rasmus Dahlin past Bobrovsky at 2:59 of the first, ending Florida’s bid for a third straight shutout. Lundell tied it for Florida at 5:02, with Tkachuk getting one of the assists on that goal.

Stenlund scored short-handed about three minutes later, before Quinn knotted things up on the power play.

UP NEXT

Sabres: Visit Tampa Bay on Monday night in their season finale.

Panthers: Host Toronto on Tuesday night in their regular-season finale.

And then he turned that goal into the eventual game-winner.

Stolarz stopped 25 shots and got his second assist of the season, Anton Lundell and Nick Cousins scored, and the Florida Panthers shut out the Ottawa Senators for the third time with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night.

“I’d like to add a goal to that, but I think at the end of the day the shutouts are the most important thing,” Stolarz said.

It was the second instance of Florida shutting out a team three times in one season, the other coming when the Panthers blanked Montreal three times in 2017-18. And it was a needed win for playoff-bound Florida, with the Panthers winning for just the fourth time in their last 13 games (4-7-2).

“I’d take 2-0 over 7-6 all day long,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

The Panthers (49-24-6) pushed their point total to 104, now three points back of Boston for the Atlantic Division lead and three points ahead of Toronto in the race for the division’s No. 2 spot.

All three of the Atlantic’s top teams played Tuesday; the Bruins lost 4-1 at Carolina and have 107 points, while Toronto beat New Jersey 4-2. The Maple Leafs have 101 points and four games remaining, one more than Florida — and those two clubs end the regular season against one another in a possible first-round playoff preview.

“All we can do now is prepare the right way,” Florida forward Sam Bennett said.

Joonas Korpisalo stopped 28 shots for Ottawa, which has four games left and will miss the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. The Senators were 0-3-1 against Florida this season, getting outscored 16-2 in those contests.

“I thought it was a hard-fought game,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “There wasn’t a lot of time and space out there. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us goals in the first period. We had a few chances, they made some big saves, and that was pretty much the summary of the game.”

The Panthers opened a four-game homestand that’ll end the regular season and wasted little time taking control, with Lundell getting a power-play goal for his 12th of the season and Cousins netting his seventh of the season just 2:46 apart in the opening period.

Stolarz got his fourth career assist when he skated out of his net to control a long clear by the Senators. He sent the puck back across center ice to Lundell, who skated in alone and beat Korpisalo to open the scoring.

“We haven’t seen that pass from even our own (defensemen) this season,” Lundell said. “That was a real pass.”

It was the ninth time a Florida goalie got an assist while recording a shutout. Stolarz joined Tomas Vokoun, Trevor Kidd, John Vanbiesbrouck and James Reimer as goalies who pulled off that feat for the Panthers. The only other time it happened this season, according to SportRadar, was April 2 when Boston’s Linus Ullmark did it against Nashville.

UP NEXT

Senators: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday.

Panthers: Host Columbus on Thursday.

First-place Boston moved five points ahead of second-place Florida. Both teams have four games left in the regular season — with the Panthers’ all at home.

“It’s another big game, another playoff-type game against a team that’s going to be there and those games aren’t hard to get up for,” said Boston center Charlie Coyle, who had a power-play goal in the second period. “It makes you feel good. It gives you confidence to win those ones, first off, but just to do it and play the way we want to play and know how to play.”

Charlie McAvoy also scored for the Bruins, who improved to 5-1 since coach Jim Montgomery blasted the team during practice on March 25 for their lack of attention to details and not being prepared for the playoffs.

“I just think that was a wake-up call that our group needed that day,” Montgomery said. “I think why we’re 5-1 is because our team is growing and maturing, and we have great leaders.”

Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, who lost for the fifth time in seven games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.

The Bruins swept the four-game season series between the teams and moved a point behind the New York Rangers for the NHL’s best overall record.

The Panthers knocked out Boston in the opening-round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring after the Bruins set NHL records for wins (65) and points (135).

In the extra period, Boqvist skated down the left wing on a partial breakaway after taking a loose puck near center ice and fired a wrister inside the left post for the win.

With the Panthers trailing 2-1 and the teams skating 4-on-4 due to matching minor penalties, Barkov snapped a rebound past Ullmark 5:24 into the third period.

“I thought we got better in the third period,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We had nothing in the tank to do it. They pushed through it. I was happy with the effort. I wasn’t happy with the result, but happy with the effort.”

With Tkachuk in the penalty box for interference, Brad Marchand sent a pass from the left wing to Coyle, who was hustling down the slot. He redirected it inside the left post for his 25th goal, making it 2-1 with 4:15 remaining in the second to end Boston’s 0-for-13 power-play drought.

Bobrovsky made a sprawling left-pad save on Marchand’s bid from in close with just under a minute left in regulation.

Florida outshot Boston 13-5 in the third period.

Ullmark made a glove stop on Evan Rodrigues at the end of a 2-on-1 break with just over six minutes left in the third.

“Linus was again really good,” Montgomery said. “He just continues a lot of impressive starts in a row here, making real desperation saves look easy.”

Tkachuk took advantage of a crazy bounce when Vladimir Tarasenko’s entry pass hit high off the back glass and directly to him in the slot, where he slipped a wrister past Ullmark to make it 1-0 just 37 seconds into the opening period.

McAvoy tied it at 5:42 of the first when he collected Danton Heinen’s backhand pass in the high slot before firing a wrister past Bobrovsky’s glove.

The teams showed a bit more intensity than a normal regular-season game, with tussles and scrums after whistles numerous times.

“It’s fun, it’s emotional,” McAvoy said. “I thought both teams played hard today and it was a really good hockey game.”

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Ottawa on Tuesday night to open a season-closing four-game homestand.

Bruins: Host Carolina on Tuesday night.

Nick Cousins, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart also scored to help Florida improve to 48-24-5. Panthers coach Paul Maurice moved into sole possession of fourth place on the NHL victory list with 865.

Joonas Korpisalo allowed four goals on 17 shots for Ottawa. Anton Forsberg gave up two on 14 shots in relief.

With Florida up 5-0 to start the third, Tkachuk scored a power-play goal by tipping in Aleksander Barkov shot in front.

Florida padded its 2-0 lead by scoring three times in the second period.

Lundell, who was below the goal line, banked a shot off Korpisalo’s shoulder to make it 3-0 at 2:35. Less than two minutes later Tkachuk dropped a pass to a trailing Bennett, who beat Korpisalo to end the goalie’s night.

Forsberg came on in relief but, with just over two minutes remaining in the period, Reinhart scored his 53rd of the season.

The Panthers opened the scoring 1:02 into the game, with Cousins taking a pass in the slot and beating Korpisalo Kulikov made it 2-0 35 seconds later with a shot from just inside the blue line.

UP NEXT

Panthers: At Boston on Saturday.

Senators: Host New Jersey on Saturday night.

Nicholas Robertson and Matthew Knies also had a goal and an assist each for Toronto, while Tyler Bertuzzi and David Kampf provided the rest of the offense.

Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves for the Leafs, who were without five regulars — including star winger Mitch Marner (high ankle sprain) for an 11th straight game.

Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists for Florida. Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed five goals on 16 shots through two periods before getting the hook. Anthony Stolarz made six saves in relief.

The Leafs, who sit third in the Atlantic Division and would have played Florida if the playoffs started Monday, had a chance to clinch a post-season berth for an eighth consecutive year, but results elsewhere didn’t go their way.

The Panthers, meanwhile, could have overtaken the Boston Bruins for first in the Atlantic with a victory.

Toronto, which fell to Florida in an emphatic five games in the second round of last spring’s post-season on the Panthers’ march to the Stanley Cup final, opened the scoring at 13:59 of the first period when Robertson scored on a breakaway following a turnover at the Leafs’ blue line.

Matthews, who became just the ninth different player in NHL history to twice hit 60 goals in a season Saturday, doubled the lead 33 seconds later when TJ Brodie circled Florida’s net and found the sniper in front for his 61st.

Florida got on the board 47 seconds into the second when Montour’s effort through a screen beat Samsonov for his seventh, but Bertuzzi took a pass from Matthews at the lip of Bobrovsky’s crease 39 seconds later to bag his 19th.

Samsonov then made a huge stop on Anton Lundell that had the Scotiabank Arena crowd on its feet.

Kampf scored his seventh for a 4-1 advantage at 8:32 after Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves won a puck battle behind Florida’s net.

Knies, who fed Robertson’s breakaway pass on Toronto’s opener, added his 13th off a Pontus Holmberg setup for a 5-1 lead through 40 minutes.

Tarasenko got one back at 2:12 of the third when he tipped 22nd — and fifth since being acquired from the Ottawa Senators ahead of last month’s trade deadline — on a nice deflection from the slot.

Reinhart made it 5-3 with 8:02 left in regulation with his 52nd as the Panthers continued to push before Bennett got Florida within one with 1:50 remaining with his ninth.

But Matthews scored his 62nd into an empty net to seal it after some nervy moments.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Visit Montreal on Tuesday.

Maple Leafs: Host Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

It was the first time Barkov — in his 11th season in the NHL, all with the Panthers — had ever scored multiple third-period goals on home ice. He picked the right time to do it, and the two points in the standings pulled Florida, at least temporarily, back atop the Atlantic Division with the Boston Bruins.

Boston plays at Washington later Saturday.

“We didn’t like our first period,” Barkov said. “We had some chances but I don’t think that was our game. So after the first period, in the second and third, we started playing a lot harder and that looked more like us. I think we found the way to win and we just need to believe that that’s how we need to play.”

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout and made 20 saves for Florida, which won for the second time in its last eight games.

Dylan Larkin, who took a shot to the inside of his knee 28 seconds into the game and briefly left later in the first period, scored a game-tying goal with four minutes left in regulation for the Red Wings. Robby Fabbri also scored for Detroit to open the game.

Both of those goals came with the man-advantage. Former Panthers goalie Alex Lyon, who played a huge role in getting Florida to the playoffs a year ago, stopped 36 shots for Detroit.

“He was excellent,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “And he had to be.”

The Red Wings picked up a point and moved within one of Washington, pending the Saturday night outcome, for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

“An absolute huge point,” Lalonde said. “Under the circumstances, you probably want both points, but all that said that’s points in two of our last three games.”

Barkov told Bally Sports Florida after the game that the Panthers got yelled at a bit after a lackluster first period. He took coach Paul Maurice’s words to heart and had two goals in the third just 2:43 apart.

“That’s what you want out of your best player,” Reinhart said. “When we’re playing our best, he’s leading the way.”

UP NEXT

Red Wings: Visit Tampa Bay on Monday.

Panthers: Visit Toronto on Monday.

“He was stellar,” Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said of Varlamov. “He made huge saves in big moments, he played the puck well and he looked really solid back there and was a key part of that win.”

Pulock and Mathew Barzal also scored and Casey Cizikas had two assists for New York, which had lost six of its last seven and dropped in the Eastern Conference wild-card standings.

“The key was the start of the game,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We knew they were going to come out fast and I thought we played really well at the beginning of the game and (Varlamov) made some big saves for us, so it was a team performance.”

Despite the loss, the Panthers still clinched a playoff spot when Detroit lost to Carolina.

Aleksander Barkov became the first player in Panthers history to reach 700 points with the franchise with his second-period goal. Vladimir Tarasenko and Aleksander Barkov also scored and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves for Florida, which has lost eight of nine.

The Panthers sit two points behind Boston with one game in hand for the top seed in the Atlantic Division.

“It’s always nice,” Barkov said. “Last year, it came right before the last game of the season, so now we have some more breathing room. But, of course, we have a lot of work to do and we need to be a little better than the last few games, for sure. So we’re going to learn and move on.”

New York is four points behind Washington for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad returned to the lineup after missing seven games with a lower-body injury.

UP NEXT

Islanders: Visit Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

Panthers: Host Detroit on Saturday.

“It gives us confidence in three weeks when it starts for real,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said, referring to the playoffs. “We were down three times, we kept coming back. So we can believe in our process, believe in our identity and keep playing.”

The Bruins also broke a tie with Florida atop the Atlantic Division and now hold a two-point lead although the Panthers have played one less game. Boston is also in second place in the Eastern Conference with 99 points, one point behind the New York Rangers, who beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-5 in overtime on Tuesday night.

“I thought it was a good effort by our group,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “It was a playoff-type game there, the teams played hard, they didn’t really have any holes, so it was a good character win.”

Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak and Trent Frederic also scored for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman made 18 saves, and also had an assist on Federic’s tying goal that came on the power play with less than five minutes to play.

Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers while Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves. Rodrigues scored just 27 seconds into the game, and three times the Panthers took a one-goal lead.

Florida lost for the fifth time in its last six games, going 1-4-1 since losing star defenseman Aaron Ekblad to a lower-body injury on March 9.

“It was a really good hockey game and you want to win it,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “You get the lead like that and you want to be able to close it out, but suffering is sometimes good. It’s good for you to put that much effort in and come away with nothing.”

Florida captain Aleksander Barkov picked up an assist 27 seconds into his return from a five-game absence from a lower-body injury.

Panthers star defenseman Gustav Forsling also returned from an illness while Ekblad remains day-to-day.

UP NEXT

Bruins: Visit Tampa Bay on Wednesday night.

Panthers: Host NY Islanders on Thursday night.

Carter Verhaeghe put the Panthers ahead 3-2 with his 31st goal at 15:52 of the third but Panarin knotted the contest at 16:35 with his second of the game and team-leading 43rd of the season. He has five goals in his last two games.

Matthew Tkachuk and Eetu Luostarinen also scored for the Panthers, who lost their fourth straight game.

Adam Fox also scored for the Rangers and Vincent Trocheck had three assists.

During the shootout, Panarin beat Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with a high shot. Mika Zibanejad also scored for the Rangers and Sam Reinhart scored for Florida. Shesterkin denied former Ranger Vladimir Tarasenko to cement the victory for the Rangers, who moved ahead of the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins lost to Philadelphia 3-2 on Saturday.

Bobrovsky finished with 34 saves.

The Rangers have won six of their last nine games against the Panthers and are 6-1-1 in their last eight home games against Florida. New York improved to 25-9-0 overall at home.

Tkachuk opened the scoring at 8:18 of the first, tipping Josh Mahura’s shot past Shesterkin. Luostarinen made it 2-0 just 21 seconds into the second on a setup by Reinhart, who leads the Panthers with 80 points.

Fox narrowed the deficit on the power play at 6:22 of the second before Panarin scored at 8:23 of the middle period from a sharp angle to tie the game at 2.

Panarin had a hat trick in Thursday’s 5-2 win at Boston and has 99 points this season. The 32-year-old Russian forward is trying to become the first Ranger to reach 100 points since Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06 and the seventh to reach the milestone.

Rangers rookie forward Matt Rempe played his first home game since March 11, when he was tossed from a 3-1 win over New Jersey after a high elbow on Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler. Rempe was suspended four games by the league for the hit.

Florida captain Aleksander Barkov missed the contest as did defensemen Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling and Dmitry Kulikov.

UP NEXT:

Rangers: Hosting Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

Panthers: Visiting Philadelphia on Sunday night.

“We’re putting in the work and that’s the biggest thing,” Forsberg said. “We knew this was going to be a big test and we came out ready to skate with one of the faster teams in the league. I thought we outskated them tonight and that’s something we want to keep working on.”

Nashville eclipsed its 15-game point streak (14-0-1) set from Feb. 17, 2018, to March 19, 2018.

“We played probably the best team in the league tonight and I thought we played our game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “We stayed true to us. We’re building for this kind of success as we go forward.”

Gustav Nyqvist also scored and Kevin Lankinen made 33 saves as the Predators strengthened their hold on the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves for the Panthers, who were shut out for the second time in three games.

Florida lost its third straight game in regulation for the first time this season. The Panthers are in second place in the Atlantic Division.

“We’re a rush team without speed right now, which wouldn’t relate to the team that you’ve seen in the past,” coach Paul Maurice said. “But you’re as good as your last game.”

The Panthers were without captain Sasha Barkov, who was out due to a lower-body injury.

“He’s right there,” Maurice said before the game. “The medical guys are going to make a decision on what they think another day will do. And if we think it’s going to give him a 5% boost, that’s a big number for us and we’re going to think about holding him one more.

“It’s nothing sinister. … He’s played with it and we’ve had this real upturn and it’s getting way better really fast and we want to keep that going.”

Florida’s Aaron Ekblad missed his fourth consecutive game with a lower-body injury. He began skating on Monday and was said to be “day-to-day” after missing two weeks from a knee-to-knee hit with teammate Vladimir Tarasenko on March 9.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

Panthers: Visit New York Rangers on Saturday.

The league announced the punishment on Monday.

The play occurred 3:36 into the second period of Tampa Bay’s 5-3 victory on Saturday night. Kulikov received a match penalty.

Based on his average annual salary, Kulikov will forfeit $10,416.66 as part of his punishment. The money goes to an emergency assistance fund for NHL players.

Bill Zito: “I wish I could tell you it’s fun. There’s a few different aspects of, I guess, a GM’s existence and then Bill Zito as the GM’s existence.”

Zito considers himself a problem solver, always thinking how he can make the Panthers not just a good team, but a Stanley Cup contender.

Bill Zito: “What can I do more? What can we do to make it better? What can we do to try to help the guys, help the coaches win more.”

Zito is currently in his fourth season with the Panthers. During that time, he’s had three different coaches and has shaken things up.

There are only four players on the active roster who were with the Panthers prior to Zito joining the team: Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad and Eetu Luostarinen.

Mike DiPasquale: “How did you get from what you have, let’s go back to last season, and what you have this season, people buying in [and] wanting to be here?”

Bill Zito: “The character of the player. The personality of the player. The people that we are able to bring in who want to win.”

The culture overall falls in line with Zito’s belief in the game.

Bill Zito: “If you don’t love hockey more than me,

Last season, the Panthers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for only the second time in franchise history. Soon, they’ll prepare for yet another run at the Cup.

Bill Zito: “The script is to be as prepared as you can be, to do as well as we do in the playoffs. Right? There’s injuries, there’s just any number of factors that we can’t control but so long as we control the ones that we can, to the best of our ability, we’ll get a lot of them right.”

Zito priority is the team, but there is another side of him that many fans are unaware of — he’s half Italian.

Mike DiPasquale: “I’d like to eat a cannoli with you.”

Bill Zito: “Oh my God. I’m going to start crying.”

Mike DiPasquale: “So as we say in Italy, ‘Buon Appetito.’ Tell me what you think” This is from my momma.”

Bill Zito: “Thank you.”

Darren Raddysh, Michael Eyssimont and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning, who have won four of five. Vasilevskiy had 16 saves in the second period when Tampa Bay was outshot 18-3.

“He was dialed in,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said of Vasilevskiy. “He’s been one of, if not the best goalie in the league since he got here, it feels like. We know what he is capable of and today was one of those days.”

The Lightning are four points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings for the top wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Sam Reinhart had two goals and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist as Florida lost its second straight after winning eight of nine. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 11 saves.

The Panthers entered the night with the best record in the NHL, sitting one point ahead of the division-rival Boston Bruins.

Josh Mahura appeared to score for Florida 3:38 into the second period but the goal was taken off the board after it was determined teammate Dmitry Kulikov took a match penalty for elbowing just before the goal was scored.

“I’ve never seen one of those,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “But that’s the beauty of the National Hockey League. They will always surprise you with something.”

Stamkos got the Lightning on the scoreboard just 20 seconds into the game, and Eyssimont doubled the lead with his 10th of the season 13 minutes later.

Raddysh got his fifth at 3:02 of the second and Stamkos scored on a power-play for his 27th to make it 4-0 at 6:59.

Tkachuk got the Panthers on the scoreboard with a short-handed goal 1:24 later, and Reinhart made it 4-2 with a power-play score with 8:05 left in the middle period.

Reinhart then pulled Florida within one with his 48th 3:52 remaining in the game.

Kucherov sealed the Lightning’s win with an empty-netter with 1:32 to go.

“I mean, listen, you want to start the game quick every time, but we knew this stretch was going to be tough,” Stamkos said. “We’re playing some really good teams and we found a way to get some huge points for us in the standings, so we just have to keep going.”

UP NEXT

Lightning: Visit Vegas on Tuesday night.

Panthers: Host Nashville on Thursday night.

Kuznetsov, playing in his fourth game since last week’s trade from the Washington Capitals, joined Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov with goals. Jaccob Slavin had two assists, while another newcomer, Jake Guentzel, posted his first assist with the Hurricanes.

“I understand why I’m here and why this team (acquired) me,” Kuznetsov said. “It’s nice to score once in a while. It’s a relief.”

Andersen stopped 21 shots for his third victory in three outings in an eight-night span since being sidelined since early November. It was his first shutout since March 5, 2023, in his ninth game this season. He has 25 career shutouts.

“We played really good defense by being in their zone,” Andersen said.

It was Carolina’s fifth shutout of the season.

“If we can get that kind of goaltending or even close to it, it’s a good sign for us,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves as the Panthers lost for just the second time in 10 games. Florida was shut out for the fifth time this season.

The Panthers matched a season low mark with 21 shots.

“They were a little quicker,” center Sam Reinhart said. “Just learn from it. They played really well tonight. Certainly things we can adjust and do a little bit better.”

Kuznetsov scored at 8:27 of the second period to give Carolina a 3-0 lead.

For a player known more for his playmaking, seeing Kuznetsov put the puck in the net was critical as well.

“He had to shoot it,” Brind’Amour said of the newcomer’s goal.

Jarvis opened the scoring with 48.6 seconds left in the first period, scoring off a pass from Jordan Staal for his 21st of the season.

“It was just nice to have the lead coming into the locker room,” Jarvis said.

Carolina made it 2-0 just 2:46 into the second period on Necas’ 21st goal. After an initial rebound, Necas drifted to the right side and, when the puck came to him, he buried the shot.

Guentzel, based on a postgame scoring change, picked up the secondary assist on the goal for his first point with the Hurricanes. He was in his second game since arriving in a trade from Pittsburgh.

Svechnikov’s empty-net goal came with 4:18 remaining, his 17th score of the season.

Florida played without forwards Sam Bennett, who was out of the lineup for the first time since early November, and Evan Rodriguez, who missed his second game in a row, with injuries.

“It’s just standard operating procedure in the NHL — you always have three or four guys that are either banged up or are out,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “So I don’t think that’s a factor in our game.”

Aleksander Barkov had two power-play goals and an assist, scoring the winning goal with 5:22 left, as Florida had a three-goal third period to beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Tuesday night.

“We went through the first 30 minutes for sure, possibly two periods, we didn’t look the way we were supposed to look. It just wasn’t right, wasn’t hard enough,” Maurice said. “That’s all we needed in the third. It wasn’t about winning the game. …. To not have anything going on for two periods and then get to play hard the way we need to play, that’s a really important thing to carry with you.”

The winner came only seconds into a power play when Florida’s captain took a shot from the middle of the right circle, and the puck ricocheted off a Stars player in front of Matthew Tkachuk, who was at the side of the net ready to knock it in.

Tkachuk did have two assists for the Panthers, who won for the 18th time in 21 games. That included the tying goal with six minutes left when he sent a puck toward the net and Sam Bennett had his stick in the air to deflect it past All-Star goalie Jake Oettinger.

That came only 38 seconds before the second goal by Barkov, who scored on another power play only 3 1/2 minutes before his winner. Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour also each had two assists for Florida.

Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Joe Pavelski each had a goal and an assist for the Central Division-leading Stars, who had their season-best five-game winning streak snapped.

“For us, I think this group, this might come at a good time as far as this is a great reminder of what’s ahead of us,” Pavelski said. “We’re going to be in this situation again against good teams. … Take this as a lesson. This won’t be a low point for us long. We’ll be looking to right it and be better next time.”

Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky hadn’t allowed more than two goals sine Jan. 19, but his personal 12-game stretch ended when Robertson and Johnston scored 23 seconds apart in the second period to put Dallas up 3-0. But Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots, many of those prime scoring chances for the Stars in the first period and a few minutes late when they had an extra skater on the ice.

“I liked big parts of our game tonight. I thought we did a lot of things well,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We had opportunities to really extend the lead and put them away. I thought their goalie let them hang around and … We left the door open, a crack for them in the third period, took a couple of penalties, and that’s all they need.”

Oettinger finished with 26 saves.

Florida’s first goal was Sam Reinhart’s 46th, the second-most in the NHL. He popped the puck over Oettinger’s left shoulder on a power play midway through the second period. Barkov’s first power-play tally came on a 40-foot wrister with 8:51 left.

The Stars led 3:19 into the game after Robertson assisted Pavelski’s goal on a clear breakaway. Robertson extended his points streak to seven games, matching his longest of the season, with his 23rd goal and 44th assist.

The person typically seems a bit confused before telling Zito the answer is four. And that leads to follow-up queries from Zito, a lawyer turned agent turned general manager. He’ll ask if they considered another answer. Why not say six minus two? Eight minus four? Three plus one?

“They came up with an accurate solution to the equation,” Zito said. “But was it the best solution? And did they even take time to consider another solution? It’s all about problem solving and really thinking about the best solution.”

That’s not Zito’s approach to math. It’s his approach to everything. He is a thinker. A problem solver. And he’s turned the Panthers, who played for the Stanley Cup last season and are at the top of the NHL again this season, into something they never were before he arrived — a consistent winner.

It’s an era like none other in team history, and the run toward this all seemed to really begin when Zito arrived.

“Bill takes in all opinions, but he does what he thinks is right,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He has a very strong vision and belief. Bill has a tremendous capacity to process and work. He never stops. It never ends for him. He has the ability to stay on an idea and thrash it through and come to a decision.”

Some decisions, like trading for Matthew Tkachuk, are easy. Some decisions, like trading away Jonathan Huberdeau — the primary piece Florida gave up for Tkachuk — are hard. But most of them have paid off nicely for the Panthers.

Here’s the stat that might sum everything up: In the team’s 26 seasons before Zito’s arrival, the Panthers won more than half their games only three times. The club has already clinched that it’ll happen this season for a fourth consecutive season in the Zito era. And since the team has the best record in the NHL, a second Presidents’ Trophy in the last three seasons is very much in play as well.

All this success under Zito has happened with three different head coaches in those four years, plenty of roster shakeups and while dealing with some salary-cap restraints that Zito had to navigate to make moves such as the one that brought Tkachuk to Florida. This past week, he made other big moves, bringing in Vladimir Tarasenko in a trade from Ottawa to help with the playoff push and signing defenseman Gustav Forsling to an eight-year extension.

He’s setting Florida up for success now — with a vision toward the future as well.

“My first year, I came from Finland and everything here felt like it was on a different level. It felt like a dream,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who had already been in Florida for seven seasons before Zito arrived. “I thought nothing can get better. And then Bill came in, and he brought this way of thinking that we’re going to keep making everything better. Everyone works together.”

The Panthers have a .675 point percentage — meaning they’ve collected slightly more than two of every three possible points — in the Zito era; among every general manager in NHL history with at least 250 games on the job, only one has a better record. Sam Pollock’s point percentage was .685 in his 14 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. Nobody else has a better record than Zito does.

Not bad for a guy who was a Milwaukee Brewers batboy as a kid, played college hockey at a little place called Yale, nearly aced his LSATs on the way to becoming a lawyer, coached for a bit as Wisconsin, was a past GM for USA Hockey and spent the first phase of his NHL life as a highly successful agent before moving into the front-office world as an assistant GM in Columbus before finally taking over in Florida in September 2020.

“He understands how to make a place a great destination for players to go to,” Panthers President Matthew Caldwell said when Zito was hired.

Time has proven how right that statement was. Zito has rebuilt the Panthers’ roster; no NHL team stays intact year to year, but the only primary players who were on the ice with Florida prior to Zito’s arrival are Barkov, Aaron Ekblad and Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Panthers have had 11 different general managers. None of the first 10 won more than half their games. Zito is the exception.

“He has a great eye for players. A great eye for people,” Tkachuk said. “Whether it’s players or trainers or a coach, he always has the right eye for the right type of people. And then he just goes after what he wants.”

It starts with coffee. No, really.

Zito arrived for his interview with Panthers owner Vincent Viola wearing a coat and tie. The interview didn’t start off that well; Viola wanted to keep things casual so the first order of business was telling Zito to ditch the tie. Zito followed orders and settled in for a talk that lasted seven or eight hours.

At one point, coffee was needed. Room service was called, some coffee arrived — and it was horrible. Zito remembered that he saw a high-end coffee machine elsewhere in the hotel when he arrived for the interview, and left the interview to go find some proper caffeination.

There are those problem-solving skills. Bad coffee might have ruined the interview. Instead, he got the Panthers’ job.

“We travel with this really high-end coffee maker,” Tkachuk said when told of Zito’s belief that good coffee is vital. “Now it makes sense.”

Thing is, it’s not just about the coffee. Zito figures if something is going to be done, do it right, whether it’s brewing an espresso or building a team.

Nobody wants bad coffee. Nobody aspires to be part of a mediocre hockey team.

“With Bill, it always goes back to the details,” Tkachuk said. “If I like a certain type of sock tape, he’s going around the world to find it. That’s the type of guy he is for his players. He’s really involved with helping us with whatever we need, but he’s not overly involved like where he’s in your face every day. It’s a really good mix. He’s been unbelievable to me. And we’re so lucky to have him here.”

There’s about a quarter of this season left. The playoffs are looming. The Panthers are the favorites right now, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, to win the Stanley Cup. What’ll happen, who knows. But it’s hard to find a big reason why the Panthers can’t contend to finally win a title.

Zito got hired by selling Viola on Florida becoming a destination franchise. His plan has worked.

“It starts with the character of the individuals in that room,” Zito said. “Those players are committed and committed to winning and being selfless, who are really, really good people. It all grows from there. It’s fueled by Vinnie, who comes and says, ‘Do what you need to do to have a first-class operation.’ And this thing, it’s working.”

In Florida, it seems to be working better than ever.

Tarasenko, acquired by the Panthers from the Ottawa Senators in a trade Wednesday, scored his first by stealing Jonathan Huberdeau’s pass with a long reach of his stick and firing the puck past Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom with a quick wrist shot 23 seconds into the second period. He celebrated with a jubilant one-knee fist pump.

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s nice,” Tarasenko said. “It’s a relief. It’s nice to understand your linemates more, the system and how the team plays and I felt (more) comfortable as the game goes on and I’m not gonna lie, it feels nice.”

Tarasenko, who also had an assist, scored his second goal late in the second period.

“I think everyone knows how special of a player he is,” said Aleksander Barkov, who was assisted by Tarasenko on his second-period goal that gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

“He has been in the league for (13) years now and every year he’s been one of the highest goal scorers. He makes plays, he scores goals, he has an unreal shot. So to have that type of guy on the ice is always dangerous and I like playing with him. So I’m trying to get the puck to him and trying to get open.”

Sam Bennett and Kevin Stenlund also scored for Florida while Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves.

The Panthers have won 17 of their past 20 games and have an NHL-leading 92 points, one more than the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks. The Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 on Saturday while Vancouver beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-0.

Yegor Sharangovich scored for the Flames and Markstrom made 26 saves.

“I thought we turned the puck over too much,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. “They are a highly skilled team and they are good on the transition. We kind of got away from our game in the second when we started turning pucks over.”

Defenseman Aaron Ekblad (672) passed current Flames forward Huberdeau (671) for second place in games played in Panthers franchise history.

Ekblad left the game with a leg injury after colliding with Tarasenko late in the first period and did not return.

Florida forward Evan Rodrigues left the game after blocking a slap shot with his ankle late in the second period and also did not return.

Coach Paul Maurice did not have an update on either player, stating that both need to be evaluated on Sunday. An update will be provided after the team practices on Monday.

Newly acquired Panthers forward Kyle Okposo did not play after getting traded to Florida from Buffalo on Friday.

UP NEXT

Flames: Play at Carolina on Sunday.

Panthers: At Dallas on Tuesday night.

Ryan Poehling also scored for Philadelphia. Samuel Ersson made 29 saves.

Gustav Forsling scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots. The Panthers had won six in a row.

Poehling opened the scoring at 10 seconds of the second period. Forsling tied it at 7:12 of the second, scoring hours after finalizing a four-year contract extension.

Vladimir Tarasenko made his Florida debut after coming over from Ottawa in a trade Wednesday.

Flyers defenseman Cam York left late in the third after blocking a shot with his knee, while Travis Konecny returned from an upper-body injury that sidelined him six games.

UP NEXT

Flyers: At Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

Panthers: Host Calgary on Saturday.

Now he’s home — in Florida.

Tarasenko’s wife and children have made South Florida their full-time home for the last year or so, which is one of many reasons why the veteran winger and Stanley Cup champion jumped at the chance to join the Panthers. Florida swung a trade with Ottawa on Wednesday for Tarasenko, sending two draft picks to the Senators.

“We usually spend the summers, but this year we decided they’ll stay here, the kids will play hockey and get in school,” Tarasenko said. “And get some sun.”

He came to get some wins, too.

Tarasenko is leaving an Ottawa team that was well outside of the playoff race for a Florida team that has the best record in the NHL. He went through morning skate with his new club on Thursday for the first time and coach Paul Maurice had him in the lineup for Thursday’s game against Philadelphia — on a line with Aleksander Barkov and 45-goal scorer Sam Reinhart.

Tarasenko has relationships already with plenty of Panthers. Among his ties: he’s close friends with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, played in St. Louis with defenseman Niko Mikkola and has worked out in the summers with forward Matthew Tkachuk.

“We feel the strength of this group is that idea of the group, the togetherness,” Maurice said. “So, when you bring somebody in, you’re always mindful of that. We spent a lot of time talking about how we think he’ll fit in the room.”

Barkov, the Panthers’ captain, said it didn’t take any time at all for the team to welcome another big-time scorer — 17 goals this season, 287 for his career — into the room, knowing that he makes the team with the best record in the NHL to this point even more talented.

“Obviously, bringing him in is huge for us,” Barkov said. “He’s another player who can score goals, who can make plays, who’s very skilled, works hard. That’s exciting.”

Tarasenko had a full no-trade clause as part of his $5 million, one-year contract with Ottawa, allowing him to choose his preferred destination. He only wanted Florida, he said.

He recalled summertime workouts where players like Bobrovsky and Mikkola would essentially recruit him.

“They were always joking to me to come join them,” Tarasenko said. “It finally happened.”

He earned a whole lot more.

Forsling — the NHL’s leader in plus-minus this season by a wide margin — and the Panthers have agreed to an eight-year extension, the team announced Thursday. He was slated to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, with this season the last he had on a three-year, $8 million deal.

“It sends a message that guys want to play here,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said.

Instead, he’s now locked in as part of the core going forward along with the likes of Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. A person with knowledge of the agreement said Forsling will receive a deal with an annual value of $5.75 million — so $46 million in total.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the financial portion was not announced.

Also Thursday: the Panthers signed forward Jonah Gadjovich to a two-year deal, Zito said.

Forsling spent his first three NHL seasons in Chicago, then got traded to Carolina in 2019. He never made it onto the ice with the Hurricanes, who waived him in January 2021.

The Panthers claimed him a day later. The rest has just fallen into place. He has missed one game since the start of last season — and it was for the birth of his son in January. He has nine goals and 22 assists this season.

Forsling’s plus-minus this season is plus-43, 10 better than anyone else in the league. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, he’s plus-103, second-best in the NHL. He’s become a major part of a team that has the best record in the league this season and is in line for a second Presidents’ Trophy in the last three years.

And now he’s essentially set for life.

The Panthers sent a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft to Ottawa as part of the deal, and the fourth-rounder would upgrade to a 2026 third-rounder if Florida wins the Stanley Cup this season. Ottawa also is getting a third-round pick from Florida in 2025, while the Senators are retaining half of Tarasenko’s salary.

“Vladimir is a highly skilled and experienced scoring winger who provides our club with another dynamic offensive option as we embark on the remainder of our season,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “We are excited for him to join our team, and to compete for the Stanley Cup once again.”

Ottawa now has $7.2 million in cap space.

Tarasenko had a full no-trade clause as part of his $5 million, one-year contract with Ottawa, allowing him to choose his preferred destination. Another pending free agent who signed just for this season, Washington’s Max Pacioretty, is in the same boat.

Tarasenko has 17 goals and 24 assists in 57 games with Ottawa this season. And selling him on Florida likely was easy.

Tarasenko owns a home in South Florida, has a relationship with Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and now joins a team good enough to win a title. He has tons of playoff experience — 97 games in 10 years — and helped St. Louis win the Stanley Cup in 2017.

The trade is the second for a rental winger in as many days after the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights acquired Anthony Mantha from the Capitals, also for two draft picks. Vegas defeated Florida in the final last season.

The Panthers are 43-16-4, the best record in the NHL.

Nick Cousins had two goals and Florida beat New Jersey 5-3 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight win, spoiling the debut of interim Devils coach Travis Green.

Eetu Luostarinen, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart also scored as the Panthers won for the 12th time in 13 games. They also played Monday night, posting a 4-2 victory at the Rangers.

Florida leads the NHL with 43 wins and 90 points. It is 25-4-2 since Dec. 23.

“It’s been a lot of fun coming to the rink,” said Cousins, who posted his first multigoal game since he also scored two on Jan. 18, 2020. “Everybody’s pulling on the same rope and we got four lines that are contributing each and every night. It’s different guys every night. I mean, when you do that you have success so it’s been a lot of fun right now.”

Anthony Stolarz made 22 saves, giving 35-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky a night off after a big performance in the win over the Rangers.

The Panthers limited the Devils to eight shots in the third period and 25 for the game.

“That’s where we take pride in,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Saving goals is as good as scoring one in my mind. And we get hyped up for each other when we make plays that change the game on the D side of the puck.”

Jack Hughes, Timo Meier and Colin Miller scored for the Devils in their first game since general manager Tom Fitzgerald relieved Lindy Ruff of his coaching duties on Monday. The move was made less than a year after Ruff led New Jersey to its best regular-season point total.

New Jersey goaltender Akira Schmid made 26 saves. He relieved Nico Daws in losses to Anaheim and Los Angeles last weekend.

“I really liked how we battled back into the game,” Green said. “I didn’t like our start tonight. Any time you get down 2-0, it’s not the way you want to start a game. But give our guys credit. We fought back and we were right in it to the end.”

Cousins was the difference. He opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season 2:54 into the first period. He made it 4-2 when he reached back to tip a shot home 5:33 into the third.

Luostarinen had snapped a 2-all tie midway through the second with a shot from the top of the circle that Schmid seemed to miss.

The Devils got off to a slow start. They fell behind 2-0 in the opening 6:30 as Cousins tallied and Rodrigues followed with a power-play goal after Luke Hughes was called for delay of game.

Jack Hughes got the Devils going with a somewhat lucky power-play goal. His shot was tipped past Stolarz by Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling.

Meier tied the game with a great individual play at 11:01 of a second period dominated by New Jersey. The big forward outdueled two Panthers for the puck in front of the net, kicked it to his stick and one-handed it past Stolarz.

A little more than a minute later Luostarinen took a stretch pass from defenseman Dmitry Kulikov at the blue line, cut to the middle and beat Schmid with a shot from top of the right circle for his 11th goal.

Referee Pierre Lambert left the ice for a couple of minutes in the second period after being hit with a deflected shot in the chest area. He returned before the period was over.

Anton Lundell also scored, Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling each had two assists as the Panthers won their fifth straight and 11th in the last 12 games. Florida leads the NHL with 42 wins and 88 points.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves to improve to 31-11-2 this season, including 15-6-1 on the road. The 35-year-old has 391 career wins.

“He’s been freakishly consistent this year,″ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of his veteran goaltender. ”We’ve done a pretty good job of not asking him to be the best player on the ice most nights but he’s just found a way to do that for us.”

Since Dec. 23, Florida is 24-4-2. The Panthers also have a league-leading 21 road wins and 44 road points.

“We were faster as the game went on,″ Maurice added. ”It was a good road game.”

Will Cuylle and Chris Kreider scored for Metropolitan Division-leading New York, which lost for the third time in four games after a 10-game winning streak. The Rangers also had their six-game home winning streak snapped. Igor Shesterkin finished with 25 saves.

After a turnover in the neutral zone, Lomberg skated down the left wing and took a wrist shot that fooled Shesterkin at 6:11 of the third to snap a 2-2 tie with his fifth goal of the season.

”Great arena. The fans were loud and it was exciting,” Lomberg said of the showdown atmosphere. “We knew it was going to be a big one.”

Lundell added an empty-netter in the final minute to seal the win.

Cuylle put the Rangers ahead 1-0 with his 11th goal on the power-play with 3:21 left in the first period, knocking home a loose puck. Bobrovsky had stopped Jacob Trouba’s initial shot from the right point but couldn’t corral the rebound.

Florida tied it on the power-play at 10:11 of the second as Reinhart tapped home a pass from Barkov after Barkov creatively passed the puck to himself in the offensive zone. Reinhart leads the NHL with 15 power-play goals on the road.

“This was a solid game by us – good defensively and good offensively,” Barkov said. ”This is one of those places where you don’t need that extra motivation. It’s New York, world’s most famous arena. It’s always fun to play here.”

Reinhart rifled home his team-leading 44th goal and second of the game less than three minutes later to put Florida ahead 2-1. He has totaled 14 goals and 26 points in 29 career games against the Rangers.

“We stuck to our game plan,” Reinhart said. “I thought we were better on the puck all night. We got the job done.”

Kreider tied it with his 31st goal — 12th on the power play — with 4:34 left in the second. Artemi Panarin got his 50th assist .and 85th point of the season — both team-highs — on the play. Only two other Rangers in franchise history have 50 assists in three-straight seasons — Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky.

Kreider said the Rangers had their chances but Florida’s relentless attack proved to be a bit better. The Panthers also won this season’s previous meeting, 4-3 at home on Dec. 29. The teams meet again in New York on March 23.

“I think we had some opportunities throughout the game to essentially take a hold of it,” Kreider said. ”I think that we gave them a little bit too much time and space at times. They were really committed to getting pucks behind us and making us play in our own end.”

Bobrovsky made 21 saves for his fourth shutout this season and fifth of his career against the Red Wings. He also recorded a shutout at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 2.

Bobrovsky has won nine of his last 10 starts.

“He’s incredible,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It’s nice when your D can be aggressive, your forwards can be aggressive and if you make a mistake, he’s back there and he’s going to bail you out.”

Reinhart has three goals in the last two games for the Panthers, who are battling for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Florida has won 11 of its last 12 meetings with the Red Wings.

Reinhart has a franchise-record 24 power play goals, including a league-high 14 on the road.

Brandon Montour had a goal and two assists, Rodrigues had a goal and an assist, and Carter Verhaeghe added a power-play goal.

Florida, which is 28-0-3 when leading after two periods, owns a league-high 21 road wins.

Alex Lyon made 33 saves for Detroit, which was blanked for the third time this season.

The game was scoreless after the first period but the Panthers were unfazed.

“It’s part of our game, it’s part of our DNA. We love playing in tight games,” Rodrigues said. “We don’t get frustrated when the puck’s not going in. We stick to our game plan.”

After the Panthers killed off two penalties earlier in the second period, Montour ended the deadlock at 8:50 with his sixth goal this season. He knocked in a rebound after Lyon made a skate save against Rodrigues.

“Those two penalty kills were critical,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Reinhart notched his power-play goal at 13:06 of the period. With Jake Walman in the penalty box for holding, Reinhart scored from the slot. His shot deflected off defenseman Jeff Petry’s stick and over Lyon’s left shoulder.

“They just have every aspect covered,” Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider said of the Panthers’ power play. “They have a good amount of low plays, they have good shooting from the sides and they move the puck really well up top. You’ve got to be prepared for everything, and for the most part we did a good job, but we let a couple creep in.”

Bobrovsky made a pad save against Patrick Kane on a breakaway later in the period. Kane’s 10-game point streak was snapped.

“His hands are so quick,” Bobrovsky said. “He made a hell of a move, so I just got my pad on it and got lucky.”

Rodrigues scored his ninth goal of the season at 4:39 of the third on a slapshot from the right side.

Verhaeghe scored after Walman was given a 10-minute misconduct for roughing and slashing Gustav Forsling.

The Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Finals last season and Detroit coach Derek Lalonde believes they could do it again.

“If they win the Stanley Cup, I would not be surprised,” he said. “In my mind, they are the hands-down favorite.”

UP NEXT

Panthers: At New York Rangers on Monday.

Red Wings: At Colorado on Wednesday.

Reinhart snapped an eight-game goal drought with his two-goal effort, and reached the milestone on his second score at the 13:05 mark of the third period that tied the game at 3.

In the shootout, Reinhart failed to score for Florida, and Montreal’s Jesse Ylonen and Nick Suzuki failed to convert before the Panthers closed out the win with scores by Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell.

Barkov also scored in regulation for the Panthers, who became the second team in the NHL — after the New York Rangers — to hit the 40-win mark.

Anthony Stolarz made 28 saves for Florida (40-16-4), which is tied with the Boston Bruins (35-12-14) for the most points in the league at 84.

“You feel it. Especially when you’re are 19, 29, or 39,” Reinhart said of his drought. “We have been doing a lot of good things, a lot of them have come on the power play and we’ve been moving it around and finding the open guy, so we’ve been sharing the wealth recently.”

Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky and Alex Newhook scored in regulation for the Canadiens, and Cole Caufield connected in the shootout. Samuel Montembeault made 32 saves.

The Canadiens became the first team to score more than two goals on the Panthers since Jan. 19, when Minnesota beat Florida 6-4.

“That Florida team is one of the best teams in the league,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “There is a lot to learn with their game, and we’re not as far along as they are, but we’re trying to grab stuff from any team in the league that does things better than us at this stage. But I thought we matched them pretty well tonight.”

Florida’s 14-game streak of not allowing more than two goals was tied for the longest this season, and the Panthers went 14-0-2 in the run.

“You look at (Matthew Tkachuk), Barkov, Reinhart, they’re all out there for a reason,” Stolarz said of his team’s defense. “They play well on both ends of the ice. They know when the time comes to get back, they’re always going to be back and they’re also pretty good at putting the puck in the net, so it’s always nice having them out there.”

Slafkovsky snapped a four-game point drought with his goal.

Stolarz and Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle both played in their 100th career game.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Visit Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

Panthers: Visit Detroit on Saturday.

Tkachuk gave Florida a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal with 4:24 to go in the first period and the team never relinquished it to win for the eighth time in nine games and move into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with the idle Boston Bruins. Both teams have 82 points.

He missed the team’s previous game against the Washington Capitals with an upper-body injury sustained last Thursday in Carolina.

“You never like missing games,” Tkachuk said. “Nobody hated it more than me but it was probably the right thing. It really wasn’t fully my call either, but in hindsight, I’m happy that they let me take that one off and it felt really good tonight.”

Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour also scored for the Panthers while Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves. Montour also picked up a pair of assists and has 10 points in his past five games.

Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 34 shots.

“I think against any team in this league, you’re not going to get to the net easy,” Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “That’s why you get rewarded when you get there, you have to pay a price to get there. I think, as a team, we can do a better job of doing that.”

The loss snapped Buffalo’s season-long three-game winning streak and five-game road winning streak.

The Panthers extended their streak of games allowing two or fewer goals to 14.

“We try to focus on our game, it doesn’t matter the opponent,” Bobrovsky said. “We will stick with the structure and guys deliver it. They work hard, they work smart and they are resilient.”

Florida star Sam Reinhart is now on an eight-game goal drought but remains second in the NHL in goals with 39.

Aleksander Barkov tied it for Florida on a power play with 3:30 to go in regulation, beating goalie Charlie Lindgren with a deflection of Carter Verhaeghe’s long-range snap shot. Forsling ended it with a one-timer from the right side on a 3-on-1 break.

“Sometimes, you just got to surprise them,” Forsling said of his decision to jump in on the 3-on-1 rush. “I figured I could go at them and surprise them a little bit. It could’ve been a breakaway, but it worked out.”

Ovechkin became the 41st skater in NHL history to reach the milestone. He’s the 10th do it with one team and is the second active player to do it, joining Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter.

Nick Cousins also scored for the Panthers. Anthony Stolarz made 22 saves.

Sonny Milano and Tom Wilson scored for Washington. Lindgren stopped 26 shots.

“The ending was tough,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “We did a lot of good things throughout the game and it was real tight. There was not much going on either way but both teams are really structured and there wasn’t a ton of Grade-A (chances) on either side.”

Pierrick Dube made his NHL debut for the Capitals, becoming the 13th player born in France to play in the league. He joins Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare, Xavier Oullett and Alexadre Texier as the fourth active French player in the NHL .

Cousins scored his first goal since Nov. 6, snapping a 34-game drought.

“Good for him,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It has been a bit of a grinder for him coming off his injuries and getting back to form, and he gets a goal in an area that he spends a lot of time in.”

UP NEXT

Capitals: Host Ottawa on Monday night.

Panthers: Host Buffalo on Tuesday night.

Kochetkov stopped 44 shots in his third shutout of the season. Carolina has won four straight and six of its past seven games.

Florida had won 11 straight road games, one short of tying the NHL record.

It was a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Final, and it felt like a playoff game in February. Both playoff games in Raleigh in May went into extra time, including a four-overtime marathon in Game 1.

“It felt really like we were almost right back at it the way it was (in the playoffs),” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Aho lifted Carolina to the win when he beat Sergei Bobrovsky after a shot attempt by Andrei Svechnikov was blocked before it could get to the net.

Aho had a prime scoring opportunity with 3:46 left in regulation but couldn’t control a tip-in chance in front. Aho said he “missed an empty-netter.”

Florida followed Aho’s initial miss with what was originally ruled a goal for Eetu Luostarinen with 3:19 left. But the Panthers were ruled offside after a successful challenge by Brind’Amour.

“I got another chance and was able to put that in,” Aho said of his team-leading 21st goal of the season.

It was the goalies who did the heavy lifting. Kochetkov’s glove save on Evan Rodrigues on a 2-on-1 rush just 3:30 into the third period was one of many highlights for the Carolina goalie.

“One goal is all we got,” Brind’Amour said. “We needed (Kochetkov) to be perfect and he was.”

Bobrovsky, the star of the Panthers’ playoff sweep of Carolina, was equally spectacular. He also got some help from the cage. Jordan Martinook had a shot go off the left post in the first period, and Tony D’Angelo had one in the second.

For Kochetkov, a 24-year-old Russian, there was extra meaning to outdueling his 35-year-old countryman. Bobrovsky finished with 28 saves.

“He’s an unbelievable goalie and unbelievable man,” Kochetkov said. “For me, it’s a little bit of a special day and a special game.”

The Panthers played the final two periods without forward Matthew Tkachuk and defenseman Gustav Forsling.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Washington on Saturday.

Hurricanes: Host Dallas on Saturday.

“It must have been one of the coolest moments in this building (for me) for sure,” Lundell said. “Out there in overtime, I just waited for my opportunity, got the puck, saw the short side was open, so I tried to pick the corner.”

Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour also scored while Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves in the Panthers’ sixth straight victory.

Thomas Chabot and Tim Stutzle scored for the Senators while Joonas Korpisalo stopped 31 shots in Ottawa’s third loss in its past four games.

“They are a good hockey team and I thought we had a chance of winning it,” Senators coach Jaques Martin said. “I thought we battled hard. We just had a couple of mistakes that cost us.”

Ekblad missed Saturday’s 9-2 Panthers win against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a lower-body injury, then promptly scored 19 seconds into his return to the lineup.

It was the second fastest goal to start a game by a defenseman in team history, trailing Robert Svehla’s goal 14 seconds into a 3-3 tie with the Carolina Hurricanes on Dec. 5, 1998.

Florida extended its streak of games with two or fewer goals allowed to 11 games. Bobrovsky also extended his personal winning streak to seven games. The Panthers have won 10 of their last 11.

“It’s the guys in this locker room,” Montour said of the team’s success. “I don’t think we’re really watching the standings. We keep winning games and keep playing our hockey, our style and again, every team is going to come in and play their best hockey. As long as we keep getting better and keep growing as a group, come April, we will be a dangerous team.”

Ottawa finished the night with the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Panthers hold a one-point lead over the Boston Bruins in the division. Tampa Bay trails the Panthers by 11 points. Florida’s nine goals was the team’s most in a road game.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves and set a team-record with his eighth straight road victory. Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist and Brandon Montour had a goal and two assists. Kevin Stenlund and Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida.

Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning, who had an eight-game home winning streak halted. Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed six goals on 22 shots before replaced by Jonas Johansson (six saves) to start the third.

NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov extended his point streak to 10 games with an assist on a power-play goal in the third period, but finished minus-4.

The Panthers went up 6-1 on a pair of power-play goals by Tkachuk during the opening 1:37 of the second period. He established a team mark for the fastest two goals to start a period by player in Panthers’ history.

Tkachuk has 12 goals and 25 points in the Panthers’ 11 consecutive road wins.

After Hagel opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game, the Panthers responded with four straight first-period goals by Montour, Bennett, Stenlund and Forsling.

Verhaeghe had two of Florida’s third-period goals.

Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad missed the game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Ottawa on Tuesday night.

Lightning: Play Monday night at home against Ottawa.

They’re getting them anyway.

Anton Lundell scored twice — including a fluttering shot that floated high in the air over Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry — and the Panthers extended their franchise-record road winning streak to nine with a 5-2 win over the Penguins on Wednesday.

“I have to watch it again,” Lundell said. “You don’t see those goals that often. We had some luck with us. You take it.”

Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and two assists for the Panthers. Aaron Ekblad and Johan Gadjovich also scored and Evan Rodrigues added two assists to reach 200 career points. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots to win his fifth consecutive start.

Florida improved to 16-3-2 since Dec. 23, a stretch in which the Panthers have zoomed up the Atlantic Division standings to draw within striking distance of first-place Boston.

Tkachuk has been right in the middle of it. The two-time All-Star has 32 points — including 13 goals and 19 assists — over Florida’s last 17 games following a sluggish opening two months of the season.

“So (Tkachuk’s) game, in some ways, isn’t any different than at the start when he wasn’t (scoring) except timing and a little bit of quickness,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “Some of that goes to our power play as well. He’s generated some offense there. I think they get confidence. Your star guys get a few points on the power play, it settles their 5-on-5 game.”

Bryan Rust scored his 14th of the season for Pittsburgh. John Ludvig scored the first goal of his career in the third but the game was effectively decided during a 9:26 span in the second in which Florida Jarry four times. Jarry finished with 18 saves but couldn’t stop the Penguins from dropping their third straight.

The Penguins had opportunities early but had a goal overturned on replay due to a Lars Eller high stick in the opening minutes of the second period and wasted three power plays, giving the Panthers enough time to find their footing.

Tkachuk broke open a sleepy game 4:28 into the second period when he finished off a 3-on-2 break by tapping in a pass from Rodrigues into an open net to put the Panthers in front.

Gadjovich doubled Florida’s lead just 34 seconds later, redirecting Brandon Montour’s shot from the point by Jarry to make it 2-0.

The Panthers kept on coming. Ekblad’s low wrist shot on the power play 8:27 into the second pushed the advantage to three and when Tkachuk fed a wide-open Lundell at the side of the Pittsburgh net less than four minutes later, Florida was in cruise control while the restless PPG Paints Arena crowd booed.

“They got a couple quick ones there and, yeah, we didn’t really respond the way we wanted to,” Penguins forward Rickard Rakell said.

Pittsburgh, forced to play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen because of injuries to multiple forwards, showed a brief sign of life when Rust deflected Jake Guentzel’s shot from high in the slot to make it 4-1 with 4:36 left to go in the second. Pittsburgh then went on the power play when the Panthers unsuccessfully challenged the goal.

Yet the NHL’s 30th-ranked power play mustered nothing and when Lundell beat Jarry again 5:35 into the third, Florida had things well in hand.

The Penguins, not so much.

The star-laden club is seven points out of a playoff spot and could be running out of time to get it together before the trade deadline. Pittsburgh is just 5-6-3 since Jan. 1 while failing to make any headway toward a postseason berth that used to be a matter of course for Sidney Crosby and company.

Making matters worse, Guentzel — whose 22 goals are second on the team behind Crosby — left the game midway through the third period and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury.

Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart, Eetu Luostarinen and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, who won for the sixth time in seven games. Matthew Tkachuk had two assists.

Bobrovsky was showered with chants of “Bobby! Bobby!” by the Amerant Bank Arena crowd toward the end of the game.

“It’s definitely a great feeling,” Bobrovsky said. “I appreciate the support, I appreciate the cheering because it’s great for me. But I thought the team made me a star.”

Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon departed after landing headfirst on the ice with 11:18 to go. He was held off the scoresheet for the third straight game after going pointless in just one game since Nov. 18.

Coach Jared Bednar did not provide an update on MacKinnon’s status following the game.

“I haven’t talked to the trainer yet, but you saw the play,” Bednar said. “He hit his chin on the ice and it got cut open a little bit. He went in for some work but we haven’t got an update.”

Alexandar Georgiev made 39 saves for the Avalanche in their fourth straight loss.

Barkov scored his first goal since Dec. 16, snapping an 18-game drought. He notched 19 assists in that span, and then added two more on Saturday night.

“It feels good,” Barkov said with a chuckle. “I mean, it’s been a while, but it’s all about working hard and trying to shoot the puck. We have a great team here and it doesn’t matter who scores the goals. As long as we win and as long we play the right way. And, obviously, I’m happy to get one today.”

Reinhart scored his league-leading 22nd power-play goal of the season. Only four other active players have recorded as many in a full campaign: Alex Ovechkin (three times), Leon Draisaitl (32 in 2022-23), Chris Kreider (26 in 2021-22) and Steven Stamkos (24 in 2009-10).

Bobrovsky secured his 41st career shutout, which moved him ahead of New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov for the most by an active Russian-born goaltender. Only Evgeni Nabokov (59) and Nikolai Khabibulin (46) have more.

UP NEXT

Avalanche: Visit Washington on Tuesday night.

Panthers: Visit Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

“He’s great. He’s awesome,” Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky said of Lomberg. “He is the soul of the locker room and it’s great to see him score a big goal.”

The goal was Lomberg’s third of the season and his first since Nov. 14, snapping a 35-game drought with a quick shot from the slot off of a feed from Dmitry Kulikov. It gave the Panthers their fifth win in six games and their first since entering the All-Star break.

“I think the most important thing for us is that we’re winning hockey games,” Lomberg said. “So if we’re not scoring and we’re not winning, it’s time to look in the mirror. But we’ve been doing a good job of winning games, so that’s the important thing. And it’s obviously good to contribute.”

Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Eetu Luostarinen also scored for the Panthers. Bobrovsky stopped 21 shots, and Florida coach Paul Maurice got the 849th win of his regular-season career — tying Ken Hitchcock for fifth-most in NHL history.

Alex Ovechkin got the 833rd goal of his career and Anthony Mantha also scored for Washington. Darcy Kuemper made 37 saves.

Ovechkin has goals in three straight games since ending an eight-game drought on Jan. 27.

“I liked our first period a lot, and you tip your cap to one of the elite teams in the NHL,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbury said. “The first period, I liked from a competitiveness standpoint, from a work ethic standpoint, our battle level, puck decisions. Each play we had the puck, it was in the spot it needed to be. The problem is that you have to be able to sustain that. It’s difficult for us to maintain that pace.”

Tkachuk’s goal snapped a drought spanning 152:02 of regulation time without an even-strength goal for the Panthers. Jonah Gadjovich scored their previous goal at 5-on-5 on Jan. 27 — 2:27 into their 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes.

Evan Rodrigues appeared to score a goal 6:57 into the second period that would have put Florida up 2-1, but it was taken off the board after an offside challenge. Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour attempted to keep a bouncing puck in the offensive zone with his skate but it just crossed the blue line, negating the goal.

Washington took the lead later in the period before Reinhart tied it back up with his league-leading 21st power-play goal. He has eight more than the player with the next most, Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin.

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov extended his goal drought to 18 games, last scoring on Dec. 16 against the Edmonton Oilers.

UP NEXT

Capitals: Visit Boston on Saturday afternoon.

Panthers: Host Colorado on Saturday night.

Cates’ goal was his first since Oct. 24, snapping a 22-game drought for the 25-year-old forward. He picked up a loose puck near the high slot, skated in alone and scored unassisted for what became the game-winner.

“When you don’t score for a while, you feel like you never will again,” Cates said. “To get on the board and get that confidence is big for me.”

The Flyers snapped their five-game losing streak in their first game since Jan. 27 following the NHL’s All-Star break.

“It’s the way we have to play,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “The way we’ve been successful is checking forward and not being safe. In the first period, we felt we were checking but we were letting them play. We didn’t close anybody out, we didn’t take any ice away from them, and in the last two periods, we played better.”

Travis Konecny also scored for Philadelphia, and Samuel Ersson made 20 saves.

Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers. Anthony Stolarz, who got the start to give All-Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky a little more rest, stopped 23 shots.

Florida’s four-game win streak came to an end, as well as Sam Reinhart’s 13-game point streak, which was tied for the second-longest in franchise history.

“I didn’t like the way we supported the puck,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “I thought we got stretched in the game that we didn’t need to. They flipped a lot of pucks, we couldn’t get a handle on them, we started to stretch our game out and we couldn’t generate anything because of it. We looked like we haven’t been out on the ice in about a week.”

Flyers forward Owen Tippett played his first game in South Florida since the Panthers traded him to Philadelphia in 2022. He also returned to the lineup from a lower-body injury which kept him out of the team’s past four games.

Panthers forward Nick Cousins played his first game since Jan. 2 after missing 12 games while in the concussion protocol.

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida. Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.

Kyle Palmieri and Simon Holmstrom had goals for the Islanders, who have lost three straight and seven of eight (1-5-2). Semyon Varlamov finished with 34 saves.

After Stolarz made a save in the extra period and sent the puck up the ice to start a Panthers rush the other way, Ekman-Larsson scored his ninth of the season for Florida’s season-high eighth straight road win.

Tkachuk scored his 16th on the power play at 5:59 of the third period to give Florida a 2-1 lead but Palmieri got his 13th to tie it for the Islanders with 1:29 remaining.

After a scoreless first period, Reinhart rifled his team-leading 37th goal past Varlamov at 7:56 of the middle period. Reinhart scored in his eighth straight road game and leads Florida with 62 points overall. Tkachuk is second with 51 points.

Holmstrom tied it for the Islanders with 3:31 remaining in the second with his 12th of the season — first since Jan. 2.

Florida goes into the All-Star break with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 31-14-4.

The Islanders are 2-7-2 in their last 11 games and 20-17-12 overall heading into next week’s break.

UP NEXT

Islanders: At Toronto on Feb. 5.

Panthers: Host Philadelphia on Feb. 6.

Jake Guentzel followed Florida’s Aleksander Barkov with a goal in the shootout for Pittsburgh, but Reinhart won it when he slipped a hard wrist shot behind Alex Nedeljkovic.

“He’s an unbelievable pro,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Reinhart. “He’s completely unselfish. He just plays his game and plays hard. I’m glad that he gets rewarded for it.”

Reinhart scored his 36th goal of the season in regulation, extending his career-best points streak to 12 games. He’s second in the NHL in goals behind Toronto’s Auston Matthews, and has 18 goals and 22 points in his last 16 games overall.

Reinhart has a league-best 19 power-play goals, which matches a franchise record for most in one season, shared by Scott Mellanby and Pavel Bure. Reinhart has goals in eight straight road games, also a franchise record.

Former Penguin Evan Rodrigues also scored for Florida on the power play, his eighth goal of the season.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves for the Panthers, who won their third straight game. Florida has won eight of its last 12 overall.

“Having adversity in a game, being in the penalty box all night can be a real negative, or it can be a real positive,” Maurice said. “I think they had a little bit of fun going through that game.”

Evgeni Malkin recovered from scoring in his own goal during Monday’s loss at Arizona and forced overtime Friday against Florida with his 16th goal of the season. The tying goal against the Panthers came with 41.5 seconds left in regulation.

“It was a little bit down for my confidence.” Malkin said of his mistake Monday. “I needed a goal tonight, for sure.”

Guentzel scored his 21st goal of the season in regulation, a power-play goal, but Pittsburgh finished 1 for 8 with the man advantage.

“I thought there were moments where we looked pretty good, but there were others where we looked disconnected,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said about the power play. “Obviously, it’s disappointing that we didn’t score more.”

Nedeljkovic stopped 30 shots for the Penguins, who lost their third straight overall. Pittsburgh has lost five of six and seven of its last 10 games overall.

Both teams scored a power-play goal in the first five minutes.

Guentzel stuffed a puck across the line just inside the right post at 1:51, breaking a five-game, 0-for-19 power-play slump. Erik Karlsson continued a 10-game point streak with a secondary assist, the longest active run by a defenseman.

Rodrigues tied it at 4:52 of the first period when he converted a rebound from the top of the crease.

Reinhart scored his power-play goal at 11:49 of the second period, following a double-minor to Penguins defenseman Kris Letang. Letang tripped Rodrigues and later made contact with Barkov in the same sequence. Barkov, who fell awkwardly and hit his head on the boards, remained down, but eventually left under his own power and returned later in the period.

“Barkov kind of stepped in front of me, so I peeled off and I think my skate clipped him and his foot got caught, but I did not hit him, that’s for sure,” Letang said.

The Panthers took four penalties in the final 7:05 of the second period, including a double-minor to Sam Bennett and another roughing call on Anton Lundell, both targeting Letang, but Pittsburgh was unable to capitalize.

“We got the kills that we needed to off that,” Maurice said. “We handled it incredibly well. I thought they were a confident group, killing. They care about each other.”

UP NEXT

Panthers: Visit the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Penguins: Host Montreal on Saturday.

Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich also scored for the Panthers while Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves.

“It was awesome,” Tkachuk said of his team’s performance. “Tons of energy from our team before the game even started. Not too thrilled with the way it ended over there in Arizona. I thought we brought it tonight and we brought it from the start. It’s good to see everybody pitch in and just have a really good group effort.”

Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley scored for the Coyotes while Karel Vejmelka made 37 saves.

“We were all not connected, not urgent enough, our execution was not there, our passing was not there, our shooting was not there,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “It’s an off night. It’s one of those nights.”

The game kicked off with two fights in the first seven seconds, first between Ryan Lomberg and Jack McBain, then Gadjovich and Liam O’Brien.

Players from both sides met at center ice during pre-game warm-ups prior to the game, with the Panthers contingent unhappy after Arizona forward Jason Zucker left Florida forward Nick Cousins with a concussion after hitting him from behind in the last meeting between these two teams on Jan. 2.

Zucker was in the pre-game meet-up but was not involved in the brawl following puck drop.

“We said a lot of words,” Gadjovich said. “Not a lot of nice words that I probably shouldn’t repeat, but sometimes stuff like that happens and we’re here to answer the bell.”

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov had an assist in his first game back from a lower-body injury which kept him out of the team’s past three games.

Defenseman Gustav Forsling also returned to the lineup for Florida and notched two assists after missing the team’s previous game in Nashville while on family leave.

Reinhart extended his point streak to 11 games and notched his 60th point of the season, becoming the fourth player in franchise history to do so in 47 games or fewer.

It was the 1,813th career regular-season game for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, second-most in NHL history.

“I’ve had a bunch of numbers, but they don’t necessarily resonate a whole lot, but for whatever it was, today’s did,” Maurice said. “That’s a lot of really good people I’ve worked with and it’s also a lot of games that my family has had to grind to just as much as me and everybody else. Pro sports is a wonderful place, but not a particularly forgiving place to work. So, to get to that number, I would say it’s special to me.”

UP NEXT

Coyotes: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday night.

Panthers: Visit Pittsburgh on Friday night.

Sam Reinhart scored and Brandon Montour and Matthew Tkachuk added empty-net goals for Florida, which snapped a four-game losing streak. Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves. Sam Bennett added three assists.

“We’ve lost a few in a row, so we needed a win,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Some really good energy on the bench, real good focus. We made a few mistakes but made up for the mistakes with really good effort.”

Jeremy Lauzon scored and Juuse Saros made 34 saves for the Predators, who have lost three of four.

“I think a lot of guys probably lack a little confidence right now,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “We generated some tonight, enough to put us into at least an overtime game. We’re not finishing. It’s kind of been a little bit of the story here the last week.”

Reinhart scored the game’s first goal with 8:41 remaining in the second period.

Just four seconds after Nashville’s Yakov Trenin was sent to the penalty box for an offensive zone tripping penalty, Reinhart beat Saros on Florida’s 22nd shot on goal of the game.

The goal was Reinhart’s career-high 34th of the season. Reinhart extended his point streak to 10 games, one shy of his career high. Over his current streak, Reinhart has 11 goals and three assists.

Bennett’s three assists tied a career high.

“Our team did a great job of battling right to the end,” Bennett said. “That was a big, gutsy effort from our group.”

Lauzon drew Nashville even 57 seconds later with a wrist shot from the high slot through traffic that slipped by Stolarz.

“I’m proud of the effort the guys made tonight,” Lauzon said. “Obviously we didn’t have a great start. I think it’s been a problem for us lately, but we came back in the second and played some good hockey. We were trailing by one goal at the end and could have had a couple bounce in our favor, but that’s hockey.”

Colton Sissons assisted on Lauzon’s goal, extending his assist streak to three games.

Verhaeghe, skating in his 300th career game, scored at 1:11 of the third with a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Saros on the stick side.

Stolarz’s best stop came at 7:26 of the third when he denied an unchecked Gustav Nyquist all alone in the low slot with the Predators on a power play.

“He made some awesome saves,” Verhaeghe said. “There was a couple times where we left the guy alone in front and he came up huge.”

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Arizona on Wednesday.

Predators: Visit Minnesota on Thursday.

Lockwood was punished for hitting Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury when the goalie went behind the net to play a puck that was dumped in early in the first period of the Panthers’ 6-4 loss to the Wild on Friday night. In explaining the suspension, the NHL said Lockwood’s shoulder-to-head hit on Fleury was “reckless.”

He received a minor penalty on the play at 2:13. during the game.

Fleury was pulled midway through the second period after stopping 10 of the 11 shots he faced.

“Kirill is a great player,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “He has a high, high talent level, high hockey IQ, he is a high-end offensive player who has got tremendous competitiveness and coming back from injury, you can see his timing is coming back now and it’s nice to see him get rewarded.”

Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello also had power-play goals for the Wild. Brock Faber had three assists and Matt Boldy had two. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 10 of 11 shots he faced before leaving due to an injury with 9:28 left in the second period. Filip Gustavsson came on and finished with 21 saves to get the win.

Hynes did not provide an update on Fleury’s status postgame.

“It was tough because we were up 4-1 and it feels like it could only go downwards from that,” Gustavsson said. “Three goals is almost the worst lead because you feel really good but there are very few margins to make it a tight game.”

Aaron Ekblad, Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling scored for Florida, which lost its fourth straight for the first time this season. The Panthers were again without captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed his second consecutive game with a lower-body injury.

Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled at the same time Fleury left, allowing four goals on 15 shots. Anthony Stolarz had nine saves in relief.

The five power-play goals allowed tied a Panthers record, done three times previously — the last in 2006. It also matched the most by any team in the NHL this season; Dallas scored five on the way to beating Minnesota 8-3 on Nov. 12.

“The things that we’re really good at, we weren’t,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said of the penalty kill. “It starts with faceoffs and mostly clears, after that, we’re just behind it. The first goal was a nice play, but after that, they’re just pucks on net. We have got to clear the net front and we’ve got to get some blocks. It’s won us a whole lot of games this year but it wasn’t very good tonight.”

Florida’s Sam Reinhart was held off the scoresheet, snapping two streaks. His Florida-record streak of eight consecutive games with a goal ended, as did his streak of eight straight games with a goal on special teams.

The Wild came into the night with five power-play goals previously this month, going 5 for 28 with the man advantage over nine games. They finished 5 for 6 against the Panthers.

UP NEXT

Wild: At Carolina on Sunday.

Panthers: At Nashville on Monday night.

Michael Rasmussen and Robby Fabbri scored in regulation for the Red Wings, who are 6-0-1 in their last seven games. Alex Lyon made 32 saves against his former team.

“We’ve got our identity going and it’s just been great,” Larkin said. “You are confident when your goaltender is playing like that, so it’s a huge win.”

Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling scored for the Panthers, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves. Florida has lost a season-high three straight (0-1-2).

Reinhart’s short-handed goal that opened the scoring at 5:38 of the second period was significant for multiple reasons. It tied his career high of 33 and extended his NHL-record streak of games with a goal on special teams to eight. It also broke Pavel Bure’s 2000-01 record for the longest goal streak in Panthers history (seven games) and gave him his 500th career point.

“Anytime you’re in a conversation with Pavel Bure, that’s pretty cool,” Reinhart said.

Yet it wasn’t enough. The Panthers wasted leads of 1-0 and 2-1, then headed to the penalty kill with 38.9 seconds left in regulation when Aaron Ekblad was called for hooking. Larkin scored with 13 seconds left in the Detroit power play to win it.

“I think you can finish on some of the chances, you can do a little heavier defensively and there’s a couple of other reasons too,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “You know what? We lost one (in regulation), we lost two in overtime, that’s a 3-on-3 game or a 4-on-3 game and that’s really not what the game of hockey is. I’m not disappointed. The thing I’m most frustrated about, I’m not answering. But we’re not far off our game.”

It was Detroit’s first game without forward Patrick Kane, who will also miss Friday’s game in Carolina due to a lower-body injury. The injury is unrelated to the hip surgery he had in the offseason.

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov also missed the game with a minor lower-body issue due to “precautionary reasons.” He also missed the final minutes of regulation and overtime in a 5-4 loss to Anaheim on Monday.

Lyon was honored with a video tribute in his first game back in Sunrise since leaving the Panthers in free agency. He started every game of an eight-game winning streak which helped them secure a playoff spot and an eventual berth in the Stanley Cup Final last year.

“It’s awesome,” Lyon said. “That’s a very classy move and I have nothing but love for my time here. I appreciate that a lot and they have great fans in a great building.”

UP NEXT

Red Wings: Visit Carolina on Friday night.

Panthers: Host Minnesota on Friday night.

Daws stopped 36 shots, Jesper Bratt scored for the second straight game and the New Jersey Devils snapped Florida’s nine-game winning streak by topping the Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night.

“He made some big saves,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think you need that. We were undermanned a little bit and I think you’ve got to rely on your goaltender for quality saves — and he gave us some quality saves.”

Bratt’s goal was his 16th of the season, tying Tyler Toffoli for the New Jersey lead this season. Alexander Holtz and Erik Haula each got their 10th goal of the season for the Devils, who have gotten 13 of a possible 18 points in their last nine games by going 6-2-1.

Daws was making just his fourth appearance of the season for the Devils, who scored the game’s first three goals and sealed it on John Marino’s empty-netter with 18.6 seconds left.

“The more games that I play, the more confident that I get,” said Daws, who improved to 3-0-0 on the road this season. “I’m feeling really good about my game right now.”

Sam Reinhart got his 31st goal for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky — announced as an All-Star selection earlier in the day when fan voting was revealed — stopped 18 shots for the Panthers.

By Florida coach Paul Maurice’s count, his team hit the post six times. He tipped his cap to Daws regardless.

“Their guy had a really big night,” Maurice said.

Reinhart has 13 goals in his last 10 games and has scored in each of the last six for Florida. Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Montour got the assists on Reinhart’s power-play goal that made it 3-1 late in the second.

Tkachuk’s point streak stretched to eight games; he’s got seven goals and 10 assists in that span.

The nine-game winning streak was the third-longest in any Panthers season, behind only a 13-game run from March 29-April 23, 2022 and a 12-game stretch from Dec. 15, 2015 through Jan. 10, 2016. The Panthers remained No. 2 in the Eastern Conference with the loss, behind only Atlantic Division rival Boston.

Bobrovsky said he considers it a privilege to be picked as an All-Star.

“It’s an honor to represent our franchise at that event,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s great to be in that group with the young, superstar generation goalies. It’s special.”

The Panthers celebrated Pride Night, which included, among other promotions, several players using pride-themed tape on their sticks for warmups, the national anthem being performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida and the team’s foundation auctioning exclusive Pride jerseys with all proceeds benefiting local South Florida LGBTQ+ organizations.

In 2013, Florida was the first NHL team to play host to a pride night.

UP NEXT

Devils: Visit Boston on Monday afternoon.

Panthers: Host Anaheim on Monday afternoon.

Sam Bennett also scored for Florida, which trailed 1-0 and 2-1 before pulling out the win. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots for the Panthers, plus got one of the two assists on Reinhart’s winner.

“This was a really tough test tonight,” Reinhart said. “I liked our battle. I liked our compete. … It was a fun one to play.”

Trevor Moore and Drew Doughty scored for the Kings. Cam Talbot made 38 saves for Los Angeles, which is 0-3-4 in its last seven games. The Kings have also wasted third-period leads in each of their last three games.

“There is going to be an element of frustration. I would be concerned if there wasn’t,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “Frustration is a dangerous emotion if you don’t channel it the right way and I think our group has done a pretty good job of it. When you go on a streak that’s not going your way, sometimes you are really upset at the effort and the overall intensity of the club as a whole, but we don’t have that concern right now. It’s there.”

The Kings’ Adrian Kempe was called for cross-checking Florida’s Brandon Montour with 1:23 left in overtime, giving the Panthers a 4-on-3 edge. The Kings killed off the first 1:22 of that power play, but Reinhart got his 30th goal of the season — going over Talbot’s shoulder — with seven-tenths of a second left to keep the winning streak alive.

Florida’s nine-game winning streak is the third-longest in franchise history. The Panthers won 12 consecutive games in the 2015-16 season, then had their other two longest streaks in 2021-22 — eight straight wins to open that season, then 13 in a row toward the end of that season.

Doughty got his first goal in his last 15 games — he hadn’t scored since Dec. 7 — about eight seconds into a Los Angeles power play late in the second for a 2-1 lead, and the Kings nearly made it hold up. But with Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Tkachuk scored with 2:18 left to pull the Panthers into a tie. It was the fifth consecutive game Tkachuk had a goal.

Both teams had chances in the extra session, before Reinhart got the one that mattered most. He became the second player in the NHL to hit the 30-goal mark this season, behind only Toronto’s Auston Matthews.

“He’s amazing,” Tkachuk said of Reinhart. “Just a huge goal.”

UP NEXT

Kings: Visit Detroit on Saturday.

Panthers: Host New Jersey on Saturday.

Sam Reinhart and Kevin Stenlund also scored for the Panthers, who have 36 goals during their winning streak. Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves.

“I don’t think any of it was easy for us,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We had no legs, so we had to make a whole bunch of mental adjustments as the game went. Part of it was just what it’s going to look like. I’m really happy with this win as much as any win we’ve had on this trip, for sure.”

Brayden Schenn scored and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for St. Louis, which had won two in a row.

“I actually feel like we deserved better offensively,” Schenn said. “We had some looks, the power play had some looks and the goalie made some saves. But then in saying that, third period, I don’t think we were assertive enough and hungry enough to play in their end more and it just resulted in them spending time on our own end and getting deflections and goals and before we know it, the game’s out of reach.”

Tkachuk scored into an empty net for his 11th goal of the season with 57 seconds left to complete his hat trick. Tkachuk’s father, Keith, played for the Blues from 2001-10.

“It felt amazing,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “I scored a lot of goals in this rink when I was younger, (but) I haven’t scored much at the NHL level, so I’m glad I was saving them up for tonight.”

Tkachuk scored on one knee to give Florida a 3-1 lead 2:18 into the third period and got his second goal of the game 3:39 later to make it 4-1. He has six goals in the Panthers’ last four games after scoring only five in the first 36 games of the season.

“He’s been on a run for a while,” Maurice said. “I think, probably the last three weeks, you have seen the game change where, I don’t want to say pucks aren’t going in, he’s just getting a different look. It’s different around the net for him. He never changed his game over that course of time. He’s committed to what the team needs to do to win. That’s why I was never really worried about it.”

Reinhart scored his team-leading 29th goal on a power play 1:11 into the second period to give Florida a 2-1 advantage.

It was Reinhart’s 14th power-play goal of the season. St. Louis failed to convert on its three power plays and has scored on just 12 of 112 this season.

“We have to score,” interim coach Drew Bannister said. “We have to have a mindset when we step on the ice that we’re looking to score goals. The chances have been there. The opportunities have been there, but we aren’t finishing on those chances, and we have to finish.”

Stenlund tied it 1-all when he scored his eighth goal on a feed from Jonah Gadjovich with 4:04 remaining in the first period.

Schenn got his ninth goal when he lifted Jake Neighbours’ rebound over Stolarz 3:24 into the first. Schenn hadn’t scored in 16 games since netting a pair of goals against Buffalo on Nov. 30.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night to open a five-game homestand.

Blues: Host the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

Reinhart has 10 goals during Florida’s win streak, including three multigoal games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves for his sixth straight win during the streak.

“When you can get on a roll like this it takes some pressure off some other times throughout the season when it’s not going so well,” Reinhart said.

Aleksander Barkov, wearing a shield on his helmet after taking an elbow to the head at Vegas on Thursday night, had four assists in his 700th NHL game for Florida. Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist, and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Kevin Stenlund also scored.

“The helmet didn’t slow him down,” coach Paul Maurice said. “If he gets four (assists) the next night it’s on, he’s wearing it all year.”

The Panthers led 3-0 and 4-3, but Colorado rallied each time. Jonathan Drouin tied it at 4 with his ninth of the season 3:31 into the third.

Ross Colton then took a double minor for high sticking, Logan O’Connor went off for delay of game 25 seconds later, and Reinhart completed his hat trick when he scored his 28th of the season at 5:59.

Stenlund made it 6-4 with his seventh 8:59 into the final period.

Colorado rallied from multigoal deficits to win in overtime in the previous two games, but it couldn’t pull off the same feat against Florida. Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche. Josh Manson also scored and Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his home point streak to 21 games to start the season.

Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev had 12 saves in relief of Ivan Prosvetov.

The Panthers scored three times on four shots against Prosvetov in the first 7:41 of the first period. Verhaeghe scored his 21st just 1:10 into the game, and Reinhart had two goals 4:39 apart.

Makar and Manson responded for Colorado in the first 52 seconds of the second. It was the first time in NHL history that two defensemen from the same team scored in the first minute of a period.

Nichushkin tied it at 3 when deflected Makar’s shot from the point at 4:35. But Ekman-Larsson put Florida back in front with his eighth goal of the season at 8:50 of the second.

That ended Prosvetov’s day after he allowed four goals on 13 shots.

“I didn’t like some of the first four goals,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I certainly didn’t like the fourth one.”

Before the game, Colorado placed defenseman Bowen Byram on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

Panthers center Sam Bennett departed with an upper-body injury, but Maurice said he is not concerned about it.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Wrap up a four-game road trip at St. Louis on Tuesday night.

Avalanche: Host the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

The Panthers won for the sixth straight time, while goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves to win his fifth consecutive start.

Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe also registered a goal and an assist, while Sam Bennett added a goal.

The Panthers completed a season sweep of the defending champs, not only exacting revenge for last season’s five-game loss in the Stanley Cup Final, but also winning in Vegas for the first time since the Knights joined the NHL.

“I think maybe we needed a little adversity to really dig down and find a way,” Tkachuk said. “We had 20-plus guys that were just completely dialed in from the start of the day today and wanted to get that job done. There’s no secret we don’t like these guys for what happened last year. That’s human nature. Especially coming into this building where a team has not had success as of late and just really wanting to beat a team that kind of ruined our summer last year. I thought in the two games that we played them have been two of our best of the season.”

Which is saying something considering the Panthers lost a pair of key forwards — Evan Rodrigues to a lower-body injury and captain Aleksander Barkov to an upper-body injury — after one period.

Florida’s special teams proved to be the difference, finishing 3 of 6 with a man advantage and going in a perfect 6 for 6 on the penalty kill.

“It’s just the mindset of our team, just playing as hard as you can for the guy next to you, especially down two forwards, it was a big performance from all 10 of us that were able to pull through,” Tkachuk added.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored for Vegas, which has lost six of its last seven.

Knights goaltender Logan Thompson made 32 saves but continues to struggle for wins, as he’s lost three of his last four starts and 11 of 17 after opening the season 5-0. Thompson has now allowed three or more goals in six of his last eight starts.

“Tonight we weren’t a great team defensively, some net-front goals against, we got to take care of those,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The lack of winning affects everybody, goaltender more so than most, because he’s the last line of defense. But I think everyone could start to lose some confidence or question things when you don’t win.”

Thompson’s confidence might have been boosted early after captain Mark Stone’s initial shot was blocked but Dorofeyev was there to slam the rebound into an open net. It was the start Vegas needed to shake off Monday’s shutout loss at Seattle in the Winter Classic, as it dominated the action over the first eight minutes of the game.

But a penalty on William Carrier shifted momentum to Florida when Bennett one-timed a rebound off the end boards for the Panthers’ first power-play goal of the night.

They’d get another midway through the second when Tkachuk’s redirect off Brandon Montour’s shot from the point slipped past Thompson.

Verhaeghe silenced the crowd with a little more than a minute left in the period when he pounced on a loose rebound to the left of Thompson and notched his 20th of the season.

Reinhart scored his 25th goal of the season on a power play in the third when he one-timed a pass from Tkachuk from the slot to provide the final margin.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Visit Colorado on Saturday

Golden Knights: Host the Islanders on Saturday

Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves and Carter Verhaeghe and Gustav Forsling also scored for the Panthers, who have won five straight and nine of 13.

“Sometimes it’s not the easiest flying all the way across the country and getting right into one, and they made it tough tonight,” Reinhart said. “They fly around the ice. They are a good hockey team. I didn’t really seem like a 4-1 game, but we were able to stick with it.”

Reinhart scored on a power play at 7:56 off the third period to break a 1-1 tie, and Tkachuk was credited with the goal at 8:38 when Arizona defenseman Michael Kesselring tipped the puck into the net from in front. Forsling scored an empty-net goal with 2:21 left.

Alex Kerfoot scored a short-handed goal to tie it at 1-1 early in the third period for the Coyotes, who had won two in a row and six of seven. The Panthers outshot the Coyotes 38-22.

“Even when they scored a short-handed goal, it’s just keep plugging on,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s just a metaphor for this team. When we have bad breaks or bad events, they are confident in what they are doing.”

Reinhart has six goals in his last five games, and his 11 power-play goals lead the league. He has scored at least 10 power-play goals in each of the last four seasons.

Aleksander Barkov assisted on Reinhart’s goal and set the franchise record with 416 career assists. He has nine assists in his last five games.

“It was a 60-minute effort by us,” Barkov said. “I’m honored and fortunate that I get to be a Florida Panther for such a long time, and hopefully for even longer. Those milestones feel great, but they are going to feel even better after the career when you have a chance to relax and think about them.”

Florida played the first game of a four-game road trip while the Coyotes played the first game of a five-game homestand.

Bobrovsky, making his fifth start in six games, has 18 wins and trails only Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev, who has 20.

“When Bob is playing like that, is is pretty fun to be in front of him,” Reinhart said.

Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves while having his career-best four-game winning streak broken.

Verhaeghe opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 10:46 of the first period. His pass was knocked down as he entered the offensive zone, but the puck rolled free and he picked it up and put it past Vejmelka on the glove side.

The Coyotes appeared to score less than three minutes into the game when Logan Cooley’s shot from the left point was deflected in, but the goal was disallowed because Coyotes forward Liam O’Brien bumped Bobrovsky and knocked him off balance while joining the play from behind the net.

Coyotes forward Jason Zucker and Forsling received five-minute major penalties for fighting after Zucker slammed Forsling into the side boards with 51 seconds remaining in the scoreless second period. Zucker was penalized five minutes for boarding and Forsling two minutes for instigating. Zucker received a game misconduct and Forsling a 10-minute misconduct.

Kerfoot scored 3:17 into the third period to tie it midway through the Panthers’ three-minute power play.

“We were in it after two (periods), not only by the score but by the way we played,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “In the third period, we got emotional and had a tough time to stay focused and keep our composure. They scored a big goal off their power play, and right away after we scored another one (own goal), and that sucked the energy out of us a little bit.”

Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, who outscored Montreal 3-0 in the third period. Anthony Stolarz finished with 18 saves for Florida.

Cole Caufield scored for the Canadiens, who dropped their second straight game in regulation after getting at least one point in each of their previous five games. Jake Allen stopped 22 shots for Montreal.

“We played some great teams and got some huge wins,” Luostarinen said after Florida wound up the 2023 calendar year with wins over Vegas, Tampa Bay, the New York Rangers and now Montreal. “It’s a good end of the year for us.”

Luostarinen opened the scoring by deflecting an Evan Rodrigues shot 4:05 into the second period. Caufield scored a power-play goal of his own 7:01 into the second, and then Luostarinen gave Florida the lead for good with 12:26 left.

“He is one of those guys who pushes himself every day in practice and in the games and he keeps driving,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Luostarinen. “Those guys can make plays late in games because their hands aren’t wobbly and they’re not fatigued. He has just been a great force.”

Bennett deflected an Oliver Ekman-Larsson shot with 4:34 left for a 3-1 lead, and Verhaeghe added an empty-netter.

The Canadiens play their sixth game in a run of seven straight on the road — three before Christmas, four following the break for the holiday — on Sunday night in Tampa Bay, a game that’ll mark the fourth time former Lightning great Martin St. Louis has been back there as Montreal’s coach.

Montreal is 1-2-0 in St. Louis’ three previous appearances in Tampa as coach of the Canadiens. The Canadiens are 0-6-0 against the Panthers since St. Louis took over, Florida winning all of those games by at least three goals.

“I thought we were working,” St. Louis said. “They are a hard team and we were 1-1 going into the third after what I thought was a really good first period. The second was good, but we still found a way to be 1-1. It’s hard to play 60 minutes of good hockey when you are playing good teams. They have to make you struggle at times. That’s just the game. But I like my team.”

It was Florida’s final game of 2023, the year in which the Panthers won more games than ever before. They won 61 times in 2023, a year highlighted by a run to the Stanley Cup Final and one that only added to the best run in the franchise’s history.

Over the last three calendar years, the Panthers have averaged 59.3 wins. In the franchise’s history, from 1993 through 2020, it averaged 31 wins per year.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Visit Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Panthers: Visit Arizona on Tuesday to start a four-game trip.

Carter Verhaeghe got the winning goal for Florida with 6:23 remaining in the third period. Evan Rodrigues also scored for the Panthers, and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 31 saves. Barkov tied Jonathan Huberdeau for the Panthers’ record with 415 assists.

“That’s three wins in a row against three really good teams,” said Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, who had two assists for a Florida team that has topped Stanley Cup champion Vegas, then Tampa Bay and now the Rangers in its last three outings. “We really haven’t played a perfect start-to-finish game, but we’re finding ways. And that’s very encouraging.”

Artemi Panarin, Will Culleye and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers, who tied the game twice after facing deficits of 2-0 and 3-2. Panarin and Culleye scored 1:13 apart in the second period to tie the game for New York.

Jonathan Quick stopped 28 shots for the Rangers, who lead the NHL with a .721 standings-point percentage so far.

“I don’t think it was a bad game or our best game, but I thought they played some good hockey too,” Zibanejad said.

Florida improved to 15-0-1 when leading after two periods and 14-1-0 when scoring at least four goals. New York is 2-9-1 when allowing four or more goals — the Rangers are 22-0-0 when holding opponents to three goals or less.

“Great building, great opponent, great win for us,” Bobrovsky said.

Barkov departed with 8:37 left after taking a high hit to the head from the Rangers’ Alexis Lafreniere. Referees originally called a 5-minute major, then downgraded the penalty to a minor.

Zibanejad briefly made matters worse for Florida with a short-handed goal 52 seconds into the Panthers’ power play, tying the game again at 3-3. The Rangers killed off the rest of the Panthers’ man advantage, but Verhaeghe scored 14 seconds after New York returned to full strength.

And the next boost for Florida came a couple minutes later, when Barkov returned to the ice with 4:17 left after a brief stint in the Florida dressing room.

“Huge boost,” Verhaeghe said. “Barky’s the best player on our team and anytime he’s in the lineup he makes a huge difference. It was nice to get him back for the last couple minutes, just to know he was OK.”

Barkov is the Panthers’ leader in games (696), goals (254), points (669), power-play goals (71), power-play points (196), game-winning goals (46) and shots on goal (1,854). The only offensive franchise record of note that he doesn’t have is power-play assists; Huberdeau still leads him there, 146-125.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Visit Tampa Bay on Saturday.

Panthers: Host Montreal on Saturday.