The Panthers, losers of 9 of 10 on the road, hope latest loss was a sign of progress
Hearts were pounding, joy was bubbling and the Florida Panthers thought they might just be on the verge of a stunning win Thursday in Texas after Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 28.5 seconds left to force overtime against the Dallas Stars.
The Panthers, despite owning the second best record in the entire NHL, have not just been mediocre on the road this year: They’ve been outright bad. They have now lost nine of 13 total away from Sunrise, including nine of 10, and Thursday turned into the latest. Florida couldn’t score in overtime, couldn’t score in a shootout and lost 6-5 to the Stars in Dallas.
“I wouldn’t say I was overly happy. I thought we played a 50-50 hockey game on the road,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said Thursday. “We had stretches that we played well and stretches where we didn’t.”
The result was a point for the Panthers (22-7-5) even when it seemed they were doomed to none, but also only a point after they held a trio of one-goal leads in the first two periods.
At the same time, it was only the fourth time Florida got a point away from FLA Live Arena in its past nine games and it was, statistically, one of the best road games the Panthers have played in a long time. Florida generated 10 high-danger chances — more than it did in five of its last six road games — and topped four road goals for the first time all season. For only the fourth time all year, the Panthers finished with more shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances and high-danger chances than their opponent on the road.
Now they hope it’s something they can build on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they face the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Florida (22-7-5) trails only the Hurricanes (23-7-1) in the league standings, in terms of points percentage.
“We thought we could’ve gotten two tonight,” forward Joe Thornton said Thursday, “but now we’ll get our rest and have a big game against Carolina on Saturday.”
The Panthers know they need to turn around their fortunes on the road. Florida has already played 21 home games this year — more than any other team in the league — and it has built the second best record in the league by winning 18 of those.
The Panthers have the best record in the league at home. On the road, they have the second worst among teams with a winning record overall.
“We were talking about it a lot,” star center Aleksander Barkov. “Obviously, we’ve been really good at home. We’ve established that identity at home. Now we’ve got to figure out how to do it on the road.”
Thursday, Barkov said, was encouraging because of how Florida rallied. The Panthers outplayed the Stars through two periods and were tied 4-4, then only put one shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the third, falling behind 5-4. In the four minutes, Florida fired seven shots at Dallas goaltender Braden Holtby to finally tie the game with 28.5 seconds to spare.
It was the sort of comeback the Panthers were used to pulling off at home when they’ve had 13,000-plus to cheer them on. Barkov believes it was a sign they can create their own energy on the road.
With Stanley Cup aspirations, Florida knows it needs to be better away from home. Thursday was a starting point.
“We’ve had good spurts, but I think tonight we competed hard. It felt like a complete game from us. We wanted to bear down in the third period. We didn’t start off that way, but I thought we got really, really good,” Thornton said. “It felt like a good road game for us.”
Added Barkov: “We can build from this one.”
