By PAUL GEREFFI
Associated Press
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jonathan Huberdeau didn’t practice Monday because he wasn’t feeling well. The rest clearly helped him.
Huberdeau had two power-play goals and Vincent Trocheck scored the winner in a shootout to lift the Florida Panthers over the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Tuesday night.
“Special teams, it’s huge in a game,” Huberdeau said. “We got two early in the game. We need to build on that.”
Aleksander Barkov scored in regulation and the shootout for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo stopped 40 shots, plus two more in the tiebreaker.
“I tried to give my team a chance to win,” Luongo said. “We’ve been playing some good hockey the last three or four games as a team. It’s nice to see a little bit of results started to come our way.”
Huberdeau missed about 17 minutes of the second period after he collided with Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns.
“It kind of hurt. I didn’t see him,” Huberdeau said. “I went in, took some time, but I could come back, so that’s what I did.”
The Stars outshot the Panthers 18-4 in that second period and scored twice to take a 3-2 lead.
“Obviously, two big goals at the beginning of the game, and then I lost (Huberdeau) for about (17) minutes in the second period,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “It sort of changed the flow of things and the lines as well. But he battled back. It was huge for him to fight through it. It hurts when you lose a guy like Huberdeau. He’s an important guy.”
Jamie Benn had two goals for Dallas, and Remi Elie also scored. Tyler Seguin had a goal in the shootout.
Kari Lehtonen made 26 saves during his first start in four games. Alexander Radulov added two assists for the Stars and has at least one point in nine straight games.
“We should have won the hockey game,” coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We deserved a much better fate. The second period is the best we’ve played all year on the road.”
The Stars were coming off a 5-1 loss to Carolina on Monday night, when they allowed four goals in the third period. Dallas is 3-6-1 on the road.
“It was better compete from everybody,” Seguin said. “Close to a 60-minute effort, which is what we were looking for after last game. Obviously, not the result. You want to get that (second) point.”
Barkov tied the score 3-all when he redirected the puck behind Lehtonen from the left side of the crease with 17:05 left in the third.
Benn’s second goal evened it at 2 after Luongo got caught behind the net trying to clear. Radulov grabbed the loose puck and passed from behind the goal line to Benn in the right circle. He put the puck in the open net at 10:56 of the second.
Elie gave the Stars a 3-2 lead about a minute later when he backhanded the puck past Luongo.
Benn’s first goal cut it to 2-1 after he took a pass from Radulov on the left side and beat Luongo with a wrist shot with 2:10 left in the first.
Huberdeau’s first goal gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead when his shot from the slot got past Lehtonen at 5:13 of the first. Huberdeau made it 2-0 on his second power-play goal when he redirected a pass from Barkov at 15:23.
NOTES: Huberdeau has points in 14 of 17 games this season. ... Panthers C Curtis Valk, recalled from Springfield of the AHL on Monday, played in his first NHL game. ... Panthers G Antti Niemi was placed on waivers.
UP NEXT
Stars: Visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
Panthers: Visit the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
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