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National Hockey League
Florida 6, Dallas 4
When: 2:00 PM ET, Friday, November 1, 2024
Where: Nokia Arena, Tampere
Referees: Garrett Rank, Graham Skilliter
Linesmen: Trent Knorr, Kiel Murchison
Attendance: 12786

Aleksander Barkov enjoyed his homecoming in a big way Friday, leading the Florida Panthers to a 6-4 victory over the Dallas Stars in an NHL Global Series game Friday in Tampere, Finland.

The Tampere native notched a goal and three assists as Florida won its fourth straight. The Panthers' captain has six points since his return Monday from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for eight games.

He was not the only Finn to find the back of the net, either. Florida's Anton Lundell scored his sixth goal of the season, and Niko Mikkola added an assist. Esa Lindell notched a goal and an assist for the Stars, who saw their two-game winning streak end.

Florida jumped out early and never looked back. Barkov got the secondary assist on Evan Rodrigues' second goal of the season. Rodrigues, who last scored in Florida's season opener on Oct. 8, redirected a blueline blast from Aaron Ekblad to beat Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger just 28 seconds into the game.

That was the first of three assists for Ekblad.

Oettinger, who entered the game with a 1.84 goals-against average, gave up a season-high six goals on 28 shots.

Rodrigues got an assist less than seven minutes later on Barkov's second goal of the season that made it 2-0. Sam Reinhart also assisted.

Reinhart added two goals for a three-point performance. His third short-handed goal of the season came in the second period, and he added an even-strength goal, his ninth overall, midway through the third. Barkov assisted on both.

Dallas cut the Panthers' lead to 2-1 on Tyler Seguin's fifth of the season midway through the first period and 3-2 on Lindell's first of the season just 92 seconds into the second period.

However, Florida never wavered. Lundell scored a power-play goal with 4:08 left in the first period to make it 3-1. Mikkola assisted along with A.J. Greer on Mackie Samoskevich's goal with 17:29 remaining in the contest to make it 5-2.

Dallas scored twice in the final five minutes. Rookie Mavrik Bourque got his first career goal and Jamie Benn shot one past netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 32 saves in the win.

These same two teams will conclude the series Saturday in Tampere.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Florida   Dallas
Aleksander Barkov 4 Points Esa Lindell 2
Sam Reinhart 2 Goals Esa Lindell 1
Aleksander Barkov 3 Assists Matt Duchene 2
Anton Lundell 1 Power Play Goals N/A
Sam Reinhart 1 Short Handed Goals N/A
Sergei Bobrovsky .889 Save Percentage Jake Oettinger .786
Sergei Bobrovsky 32 Saves Jake Oettinger 22
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Florida 28 6 1-2 3-3 8 35
Dallas 36 4 0-3 1-2 6 31
Upcoming Games
  • Dallas will play their next game on the road against Florida. The Stars have a W/L % of .571 after a win and 1.000 after a loss.
  • Florida will play their next game at home against Dallas. The Panthers have a W/L % of .625 after a win and .750 after a loss.