Barkov has 2 points in return, Panthers top Sabres for 3rd win in row

BUFFALO -- Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist in his return from a lower-body injury in a 5-2 win for the Florida Panthers against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Monday.

Florida's captain had missed the previous eight games with the injury.

“It was great [to be back],” Barkov said. “Obviously, when you miss a long time, maybe sometimes your game is a little off and some reads here and there are kind of hard. But playing with really good players, they helped me out a lot. So, just stay in the middle and wait for the puck to come on your stick.”

Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (7-3-1), who have won three straight and four of their past five. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.

Jason Zucker and Rasmus Dahlin scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves for the Sabres (4-5-1), who had won three in a row.

“I think it was a little sloppy overall,” Zucker said. “We showed that we can play with them, and that’s a huge part of it, but we can’t be satisfied with that either. We lost the game and arguably did it to ourselves. We’ve got to regroup here. We’ve got a couple of days to regroup, spend a little bit of time and get back after it.”

Jesper Boqvist gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 11:01 of the first period, finishing off a pass from Anton Lundell on a 2-on-1 by beating Luukkonen under his right arm.

“Jesper plays the game we're trying to play,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He's on the puck, good physicality, but smart about it. He's not running out of position to finish his checks. He gets a stick on the puck, he stops pucks. I think there's something there.”

Reinhart scored on the power play 55 seconds later to make it 2-0. Barkov sent a no-look, backhand pass from behind the net to Reinhart, who lifted the puck over Luukkonen’s right shoulder.

Zucker cut it to 2-1 at 10:45 of the second period when he batted in Tage Thompson’s floating shot at the side of the net on the power play.

Dahlin scored his first of the season to tie it 2-2 at 12:37. He carried the puck from the blue line to the right circle before cutting to the front of the net and putting a shot under Bobrovsky’s right arm.

Bobrovsky prevented the Sabres from taking the lead a few minutes later when he got across the crease and, having dropped his stick in the process, got down into the splits to make a right pad save on Sabres defenseman Owen Power, who had an open net.

Verhaeghe then put the Panthers back in front 3-2 at 16:44. Luukkonen made the save on Matthew Tkachuk’s shot from the right face-off dot, but the rebound went to Verhaeghe, who was uncovered in front.

“They're coming a little bit, they've tied the game, now we're reeling a little bit,” Maurice said. “That’s natural, on the road especially. Makes the big save, just keeps their building from going and get their bench from going. And then a net-drive goal, real basic kind of meat-and-potatoes goal to get the lead back. Really important.”

Bennett pushed the lead to 4-2 at 14:35 of the third period when he scored far side from the right circle on the power play. It was his fifth straight game with a goal.

Barkov scored from the same spot at 15:43 for the 5-2 final.

“You can say we had a good start, but we gave them odd-numbered rushes,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We missed our assignments, and [against] a team like that, they made us pay dearly. Talked about odd-numbered rushes, if you’re going to hand a team that was just Stanley Cup champions odd-numbered rushes, you’re going to pay dearly, and they made us pay. That’s on us.”

NOTES: The Panthers left after the game for Tampere, Finland, where they will play two games this weekend against the Dallas Stars in the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland presented by Fastenal. … Verhaeghe has eight points (two goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak. … Thompson extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, five assists).