Anthony Stolarz made 45 saves, and the Florida Panthers extended their road winning streak to 10 games with Thursday’s 4-0 shutout of the Buffalo Sabres.
The Panthers are the 11th team in NHL history to win at least 10 consecutive away games in a single season. The 2005-06 Detroit Red Wings and 2014-15 Minnesota Wild share the league record of 12 straight road victories.
Florida is 8-1-0 in its last nine games. Thursday’s win combined with Boston’s loss moved the Panthers into a tie with the Bruins for first place (74 points) in the Eastern Conference.
Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals, Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist and Gustav Forsling had two assists. Ryan Lomberg scored Florida’s other goal.
Buffalo outshot Florida by a 45-31 margin, but Stolarz delivered a standout performance for his first shutout of the season. Playing in a backup role behind Sergei Bobrovsky, Stolarz has an impressive .926 save percentage over 17 games.
The Sabres are 1-3-0 in their last four games and were shut out for the fourth time this season. Rasmus Dahlin led all Buffalo skaters with eight shots.
Eric Comrie stopped 27 of 30 shots in his first NHL game since Dec. 5. Original starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was a late scratch from Buffalo’s lineup due to a lower-body injury.
Aleksander Barkov earned his 40th assist of the season with some strong forechecking 9:26 into the first period. Barkov took the puck away from defenseman Ryan Johnson in the corner, then passed in front to Verhaeghe for the conversion.
The Sabres outshot Florida 35-18 over the last two periods, but couldn’t beat Stolarz. The Panthers goalie made an impressive stop on Casey Mittelstadt within the first 30 seconds of the second period, and Stolarz also made eight saves during two Buffalo power plays.
Despite the Sabres’ edge in offensive pressure, Florida continued to build its lead. On a delayed penalty call at the 17:16 mark of the second, Lundell tallied his seventh goal of the season by tipping in a Matthew Tkachuk point shot.
Verhaeghe added an empty-net goal at 18:27 of the third period, and Lomberg scored a power-play marker with 13 seconds left in regulation.
–Field Level Media
