Florida Panthers top Dallas Stars 4-2 and sweep 2-game series in Finland
TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — AJ Greer scored his first goal for Florida early in the third period, Aleksander Barkov and Niko Mikkola each had assists in their homeland and the Panthers beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Saturday to finish a two-game sweep in Finland.
Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk also had goals for Florida, which won its fifth straight. Reinhart also had an assist for the Panthers, making him the second player in the NHL to reach 20 points on the season, and capped it with an empty-netter.
Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov had goals 34 seconds apart in the second period for Dallas, which dropped two straight for the first time this season.
Spencer Knight stopped 23 shots for Florida. Casey DeSmith made 20 saves for Dallas.
Takeaways
Stars: Coach Peter DeBoer remained at 619 victories, one shy of matching Bryan Murray for 20th on the all-time list. DeBoer got 103 of those wins with Florida.
Panthers: Reinhart (10-11-21) has more points than any Florida player through 13 games of a season. The previous 13-game high was 17 (Reinhart last season, Matthew Tkachuk in 2022-23 and Jonathan Huberdeau in 2020-21).
Key moment
Greer’s go-ahead goal at 2:32 of the third period was assisted by Tomas Nosek — his first point for Florida.
Key stat
The seven Finnish players — four from Florida, three from Dallas — combined for 11 points in the series. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov had four points, Florida’s Mikkola and Dallas’ Esa Lindell each had two, while Florida’s Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen and Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen each had one.
Up next
Stars: Host Chicago on Thursday, part of a stretch during which the Stars play three consecutive games in three different countries (Finland on Saturday, the U.S. on Thursday and in Canada at Winnipeg on Nov. 9).
Panthers: Open a five-game homestand Thursday against Nashville.
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