‘He got rewarded’: Panthers forward has career day in series-clinching win over Lightning
The attention always shifts to the stars during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Florida Panthers aren’t short of them.
Aleksander Barkov. Brad Marchand. Matthew Tkachuk. Sergei Bobrovsky.
But the playoffs are also the time when the unexpected players, the role guys, have a chance to step up and have their moment.
Eetu Luostarinen had that for the Panthers on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old winger, known more for his defense than his scoring prowess, scored a goal and tallied four points overall in Florida’s 6-3, series-clinching win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. He became just the fifth player in franchise history to record at least four points in a playoff game, joining Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Ray Sheppard.
Luostarinen’s four points set a Panthers record for a road playoff game, and he became the first player in club history with four points in a potential series-clinching game.
What’s more: Luostarinen had never had more than two points in any game of his NHL career — 374 regular season games or 54 playoff games — before Wednesday.
“He’s been great ever since he came to the Panthers,” Barkov said. “And just a great guy to have around. You see how much of that [offensive] skill that he has that maybe doesn’t always show up on the score sheet. He kills penalties with his high hockey IQ. He’s really good on the forecheck. He has a really good stick. And now, he got rewarded with four points.”
Luostarinen has steadily become more and more of a key player for the Panthers as his tenure with the team extended. He was the team’s fourth-line winger in his two seasons with the team after being acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2020 NHL trade deadline. Panthers coach Paul Maurice saw something more in him when he arrived ahead of the 2022-23 season.
“He was clearly a top-nine guy,” Maurice said.
So Luostarinen moved from center to wing, and has played primarily on a line with fellow Finnish forward Anton Lundell the past three years. He also became a critical part of Florida’s penalty kill the past two years.
The result: He has scored 38 goals and produced 94 points during the past three regular seasons and added another 18 points in the playoffs in that span.
Wednesday was one of his more complete efforts. He had the secondary assist on each of Florida’s go-ahead goals — 2-1 by Lundell with 9:54 left in the first period, 3-2 by Barkov 52 seconds into the second period and 4-3 by Sam Bennett with 4:47 left in the second — before giving the Panthers a 5-3 lead with 6:58 left in the third when he sniped a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy while on a two-on-one rush with Brad Marchand.
“We just tried to keep it simple as it gets,” Luostarinen said. “It feels good to contribute in the offensive end as well. That’s a team win and a good series.”
This and that
▪ The Panthers’ penalty kill went 16 for 18 in the series against the Lightning. On those 18 power play opportunities — two of which were five-minute majors — Tampa Bay had just 17 shots on goal and 13 scoring chances.
▪ Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had a .901 save percentage in the series, stopping 100 of 111 shots he faced.
▪ Florida had four players with at least 20 hits in the series: Dmitry Kulikov (21), Bennett (21), Niko Mikkola (21) and Luostarinen (20).
▪ Defenseman Gustav Forsling blocked a team-high 11 shots in the series against Tampa Bay.
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