Tkachuk has 3 points, Panthers defeat Penguins

PITTSBURGH -- Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, helping the Florida Panthers to a 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

Tkachuk has 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists) in 21 games since Dec. 23.

"His game, in some ways, isn't any different than at the start when he wasn't [scoring] except timing and a little bit of quickness,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Some of that goes to our power play as well. He's generated some offense there. I think they get confidence. Your star guys get a few points on the power play, it settles their 5-on-5 game."

Anton Lundell scored twice, and Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers (34-15-4), who have won three in a row and seven of eight. Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves.

Bryan Rust scored, and Tristan Jarry made 18 saves for the Penguins (23-20-7), who have lost three straight.

“This one is a tough one for me to assess coming off the bench,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “Usually, I’ve got a pretty good feel for how the game was played. I just think it wasn’t like we were under siege or anything. We just gave up some untimely goals.”

The Penguins appeared to take 1-0 lead on Rickard Rakell’s power-play goal at 2:32 of the second period, but it was overturned after the Panthers challenged the play and it was determined Lars Eller played the puck with a high stick.

Tkachuk and Jonah Gadjovich then scored 34 seconds apart to give Florida a 2-0 lead, each goal coming in the 40 seconds following a successful penalty kill.

“A three-goal swing in a very, very short period of time, critically important,” Maurice said. “It's such a dangerous team. ... Their plus-10 [goal] differential, I think they're the only team on the outside (of the Stanley Cup Playoffs) with that. They're hard to play against.”

Tkachuk scored at 4:28 on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle off a pass from Rodrigues. Gadjovich extended the lead at 5:02, deflecting a shot from Brandon Montour.

“You get one disallowed and then they score two right off the top,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “So that’s probably not what you’re looking for. But there’s a lot of time left to get back in the game and we were unable to do that.”

Aaron Ekblad made it 3-0 on the power play at 8:27 with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Lundell pushed it to 4-0 at 13:02, redirecting a pass from Tkachuk at the left post.

“When you get that lead like that, it's never easy to keep it,” Ekblad said. “We did a really good job of being resilient and finding a way."

Rust cut it to 4-1 at 15:24 when he deflected Jake Guentzel's spinning wrist shot through traffic.

The five combined goals in the second came after the Panthers (four) and Penguins (three) totaled seven shots on goal in the first period.

“We're spending way too much time [with] the puck on the boards instead of making tape-to-tape passes and breaking the puck out,” Rakell said. “It’s something that we’re going to keep working on. We know we have it in this room.”

Lundell extended the lead to 5-1 at 5:35 of the third period when his shot popped high in the air off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Marcus Pettersson, landed behind Jarry and went in off his skate.

“You don't see those goals that often,” Lundell said. “We had some luck with us. You take it."

John Ludvig scored his first NHL goal, cutting it to 5-2 at 6:07 on a wrist shot from the right circle. The rookie defenseman was playing his 21st NHL game.

NOTES: Guentzel is being evaluated for an upper-body injury, Sullivan said. His final shift ended at 8:02 of the third after he took a hit from Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola at 7:10. ... The Panthers have won nine in a row on the road since Dec. 27, the longest streak in their history and tied with the Edmonton Oilers (Dec. 21-Jan. 20) for the second-longest this season. The Los Angeles Kings won 11 straight road games from Oct. 17-Dec. 7. ... Rodrigues reached 200 points (77 goals, 123) assists in 438 NHL games. ... Penguins forward Jansen Harkins did not play after sustaining a concussion against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, leading Pittsburgh to use 11 forwards and seven defensemen Wednesday.