Top-line and power-play scoring carry Panthers again in 2-1 win over Red Wings

Bob Boughner said before Saturday’s game began that he believed the matchup — between his Florida Panthers and the Detroit Red Wings — could be decided by who was more ready to play at the beginning of the game.

It turns out the coach was right, and it took just over three minutes for that to be clear.

The Panthers drew a penalty with 16:59 left in the first period, and eight seconds later, Aleksander Barkov found Jonathan Huberdeau, who fired a pass to Mike Hoffman. The veteran then ripped a shot into the net to give Florida the early advantage.

Before the first period ended, Barkov and Huberdeau assisted on another goal, this time to Evgenii Dadonov, who finished off his team-leading 17th goal of the season.

That was all the Panthers would need, as goaltender Roberto Luongo saved 33 shots to hold on to Florida’s third win in its last four games, 2-1, moving the team to 14-14-6 on the season.

“We had a good start, obviously,” Luongo said. “You know, we got two quick goals early, which was big for our club, you now, just to establish good momentum for our team.”

The win was textbook for this season’s Panthers.

Florida’s scoring load has been carried by its top performers all year. Barkov, Dadonov, Huberdeau and Hoffman, along with defenseman Keith Yandle, have a combined 173 points this season. The rest of the team has 124.

With that, some of the individual scoring stats are impressive. Huberdeau’s two assists on Saturday give him 25 points in his last 14 games. Barkov now has seven points in his last four games. Dadonov continued his hot streak that began last season, as he now has 45 goals since the beginning of the 2017-18 season — the best mark on the team.

And much of that scoring has been achieved on the power play, as the Panthers have the third-best power play unit in the league.

Florida checked all those boxes — top-line and power-play scoring — in the first period alone.

“We challenged the leadership group to be ready today,” Boughner said. “ur best players needed to be better than theirs.

“… Our skill guys made great decisions with the puck at the end of shifts, and they were very disciplined in the way they stuck to the game plan.”

Of course, the heavy scoring load on a few players is a catch-22. On one hand, the Panthers can find comfort in the fact that their best players are good enough to win a game on their own. That is what happened Saturday.

On the other hand, if Florida is serious about clawing its way back into playoff contention, it will need some secondary scorers to step up. In Boughner’s eyes, that is the Panthers’ next step.

“Today, the big boys were going, and it’s not like (the lower lines are) not going underneath,” Boughner said. “It’s just we’re having trouble getting that depth scoring going.

“… Every team has to rely on their big boys every night, but depth scoring is important. Especially after Christmas, when we get in the second half of the season, we’re going to have to lean on the rest of the lineup for sure.”