Luostarinen breaks tie in 3rd, Panthers defeat Penguins

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Eetu Luostarinen scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves to help the Florida Panthers to a 3-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

Luostarinen put Florida in front at 6:10 on a rebound of Evan Rodrigues’ shot to make it 2-1.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored, and Anton Lundell had two assists for the Panthers (16-8-2), who wrapped up a three-game homestand (2-1-0).

“We kept going at it, kept it simple,” Ekman-Larsson said. “We were connected as a team in the third and, sometimes that is enough for one period. We’ll take it. [Bobrovsky] is a good goalie and is going to be there every time. He kept us in it in the first two periods, then made some key saves at the end.”

Reilly Smith ended a 15-game goal drought for the Penguins (11-12-3), who have lost four in a row (0-2-2) and five of six (1-2-3). Tristan Jarry made 30 saves.

Pittsburgh went 0-for-3 on the power play, including one with 2:39 remaining after Lundell was called for tripping. It hasn’t scored with the man-advantage since Nov. 11 (37 opportunities).

“I thought late in the game, it was good,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We had a couple of good looks around the net, so hopefully we can build off that.

“… We gave ourselves a chance, and you’ve got to do that every night. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but I thought we gave ourselves a chance and we’ll try to keep getting better here.”

Smith gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 8:05 of the second period when he cut to the net and scored on a backhand after a pass from Evgeni Malkin. It was his first goal since Nov. 4.

Ekman-Larsson tied it 1-1 at 17:02, poking in a rebound in front for his seventh goal of the season.

Bobrovsky made 10 saves in the second, including a pad stop against Jake Guentzel on a breakaway at 5:09.

“He was the difference,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “… It is a hard thing in the NHL to not be playing the game you want to be and be able to right it. “The first period was closer than I would want. … I didn’t care for our second period. We got very happy in the up-and-down, and that’s not a good recipe. But I think we fixed it.”

Aleksander Barkov scored an empty-net goal with 27 seconds left for the 3-1 final.

Bobrovsky has won each of his past four starts and has a .941 save percentage over that span.

“Pittsburgh is very skillful; they have lots of skill up front and a lot of big names,” Bobrovsky said. “It was fun, it was a challenge. It wasn’t easy for us, but we stuck together. We chipped away and found a way to get two points against a really good team.”

The Penguins also lost 3-1 at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday. They’ve scored once in each of their past three games.

“I thought we were good, played a hard game, were all over the ice and defended well,” Jarry said. “Obviously, that’s not the outcome that we wanted, but it is what the score ended up. I thought we competed. It was a good game. We need to keep that going.”

NOTES: Ekman-Larsson’s seven goals are tied with Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche) and Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings) for second in the NHL among defensemen; Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks) leads with nine. Ekman-Larsson scored twice in 54 games for the Canucks last season. … Lundell was plus-3, had five shots on goal and won five of eight face-offs (62.5 percent) in 16:35 of ice time. … Pittsburgh forward Bryan Rust did not play because of an upper-body injury. He missed the third period Wednesday.