Ekblad, Luongo help Panthers shut out Blackhawks

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Defenseman Aaron Ekblad returned to the Florida Panthers lineup and helped them get back on track.
Ekblad scored, and Roberto Luongo made 27 saves for his fourth shutout of the season when the Panthers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 at BB&T Center on Friday.

The win ended a four-game skid and was Florida's first since a Panthers-record 12-game winning streak. All of the losses were without Ekblad, who was sidelined with a concussion.
"It's a great win for us," defenseman Brian Campbell said. "We got our game back. Complete game. We played a complete 60 minutes, which we were doing on our win streak there. Everybody contributed. We took care of the puck finally. Obviously when they do get chances, [Luongo] is going to be there for us."
The shutout was the 72nd of Luongo's NHL career, moving him into 10th place on the League's all-time list. He was tied with Lorne Chabot and Harry Lumley.
"He had to make three or four great saves," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "It was a 4-0 win, but he had to earn that shutout."
Reilly Smith, Campbell and Quinton Howden scored first-period goals for Florida (27-15-5).
Scott Darling made 28 saves for Chicago (32-15-4), which had its Blackhawks-record 12-game winning streak ended Thursday with a 2-1 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Darling had a 1.64 goals-against average winning three starts during the streak.
The outcome Friday was reminiscent of Florida's first game after its winning streak ended: a 6-0 loss to the Calgary Flames.
"There was a loss of a little enthusiasm after last night's game," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We didn't start well. Let a couple goals go in and you're down 4-0 before you know it. There was no push and there was not a lot of energy tonight. It was one of those games where they started well and they were the better team."
The victory was Florida's first against Chicago since March 8, 2011, ending an eight-game losing streak in the series. It was Chicago's second-longest active streak against an opponent, behind its nine-game run against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Panthers increased their lead in the Atlantic Division to three points over the Lightning; the teams play Saturday at BB&T Center (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, SUN).
The Panthers are 18-0-1 when scoring at least three goals.
The result matched a 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars on Dec. 22 as the most lopsided of season for the Blackhawks.
"If you can win that many games in the row, especially against the teams we were playing against, you can take a lot of good things away from it," Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. "We didn't do the right things the last couple of games and you see what happens."
Ekblad was injured in the last game of the Panthers winning streak, a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 10.
He scored the only goal of the second period after intercepting an errant clearing pass from defenseman Rob Scuderi near the blue line. Ekblad skated in before taking a slap shot that beat Darling to the glove side.
"The defenseman kind of put it right on my tape," Ekblad said. "I got lucky. But it's nice to get rolling like that right off the get-go."
The Panthers took control in the first period, building a 3-0 lead. They got five shots on goal in the first 1:41 and held the Blackhawks without a shot for the first 7:57.
"You talk about playing the Stanley Cup champs," Gallant said. "We haven't played our best games lately and I thought tonight we came out there and played a sound game, good defensively, really skated, really moved the puck. That brought the best out of us tonight playing that team."
Smith opened the scoring at 6:19 when he beat Darling from a sharp angle with a wrist shot over his right shoulder. The goal was the 14th of the season for Smith, who had 13 in 81 games for the Boston Bruins last season.
Campbell made it 2-0 at 17:18 when he one-timed a pass from Aleksander Barkov at the left circle. After Jonathan Huberdeau's cross-ice pass went off the skate of a Chicago player, the puck slid to the side of the net where Barkov retrieved it before sending a diagonal pass to Campbell coming in behind the play. The assist was the 100th of Huberdeau's four-season NHL career.
It became 3-0 with 2.1 seconds left in the period when Howden's shot from a sharp angle trickled between Darling's right arm and his body and stopped a few feet behind the goal line.
"They just ended a 12-game winning streak on the other side," Luongo said. "We know what that's like coming in. We experienced the same thing in Calgary. We knew that if we had a good start we could probably set a good tempo to our game and dictate the pace. It was a bonus obviously that we scored a few goals there, but our start tonight was important more than any other game this season, I thought."
Down 4-0, Chicago pulled Darling for an extra attacker with 8:44 left in the third period before putting him back in with a faceoff in the neutral zone. Darling was briefly pulled again later for a faceoff in the offensive zone but went back in after a Chicago penalty and stayed the rest of the way.
"You never know, you get one, all of a sudden you get excited," Quenneville said. "A lot of Hawks fans out there, you never know. We started seeing it last year and experimented with it a couple of times this year. It's not usually my go-to move. It could happen one day where it works."
Forward Jiri Sekac, acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in a trade Thursday, played 11:19 his Blackhawks debut.
After winning once on a three-game road trip, Chicago plays at home Sunday against the St. Louis Blues.