5 Takeaways: Huberdeau's Late Goal in Lifts Panthers to 4th Straight Win

LOS ANGELES -Jonathan Huberdeau is having himself a season for the ages.
The top-line winger supplied the heroics in Hollywood on Saturday night, slipping the puck past goaltender Jonathan Quick with 1:56 left in regulation to help the Florida Panthers extend their winning streak to four games with a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings at STAPLES Center.

Earlier, Huberdeau also tied Viktor Kozlov's franchise record with his 53rd assist of the season.
"We know we're a good team," said Huberdeau, who ranks second on the team with a career-high 76 points. "I feel our record is not showing how good of a team that we are. Obviously we're not where we want to be this year. We're still a little far out of the playoffs, but we can only control to win every game. From now, win out until the end."

While Huberdeau had the game-winner, all three members of Florida's top line had a hand in the win, including a two-goal performance from Evgenii Dadonov and three assists from team captain Aleksander Barkov. Overall, the talented trio combined for three goals and five assists.
Taking a 2-1 lead in the second period on Dadonov's first goal of the night, Brendan Leipsic and Anze Kopitar each scored within the first 10 minutes of the third to put the Kings ahead 3-2 at 9:44. That lead was short-lived, however, as Dadonov lit the lamp again to make it 3-3 at 13:47.
With 1:56 left, Huberdeau completed the comeback, beating Quick to secure the 4-3 final.
"He's a really good player," Barkov said of Dadonov, who had one goal in his previous 11 games before erupting in tonight's win. "He's been playing really well all the time. The puck just hasn't been finding the way in. This time, he scored two crucial goals for us and won the game."
In net, rookie Sam Montembeault made 24 saves to earn his fourth straight victory. Of those saves, NaturalStatTrick.com considered an eye-popping 10 of them to be high-danger stops.
"I'm feeling good when I'm playing," said Montembeault, who improved to 4-0-1. "The guys let me see the puck really well, too. It's just easier. I'm always nervous at the beginning, but after a few shots I'm just getting comfortable and feeling the puck well."
The Panthers (32-27-12) now have points in 13 of their last 16 games, owning an 9-3-4 record in that span to climb within seven points of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
"We're not dead yet," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "We can make things interesting. We just have to keep winning. Tomorrow's another big day for us."
Here are five takeaways from Saturday's win in Los Angeles…

1. JUST KEEP SHOOTING

There's a reason Mike Hoffman has the green light to shoot at will on the power play.
Slamming his stick in frustration after firing just wide on his first shot two attempts, Hoffman broke through on his next trip down the ice, dropping to one knee and unloading a blistering one-timer from the top of the right circle to put the Panthers up 1-0 at 4:10 of the first period.

With his team-leading 33rd goal of the season, Hoffman has now surpassed Ray Whitney's franchise record for most goals scored by a first-year Panther (32, 1997-98). Acquired from San Jose for draft picks in the offseason, the 29-year-old has posted a career-high 64 points this season.
A driving force behind the team's second-ranked power play, Hoffman's 16 goals with the extra attacker on the ice are tied for fifth in the NHL. With three more power-play goals, he will match the current franchise record of 19, which is shared between Scott Mellanby and Pavel Bure.
Hitting his stride, Hoffman's notched 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) over his last 16 games.

2. APPROACHING HISTORY

With an assist on Hoffman's first-period goal, Keith Yandle inched closer to multiple milestones.
Leading all Panthers defensemen in points (56) and assists (47), the 32-year-old needs just two more points to overtake Robert Svehla for the most points in a single season from a blueliner in team history. With three more helpers, he will also claim the club's single-season assist record.
The quarterback of Florida's second-ranked power play, Yandle has recorded a career-best 36 points on the man advantage, which stands as the second-most in the NHL this season.
With one more power-play point, he will tie Olli Jokinen for the most in a season in franchise history.
"With guys out there like Barky, Huby, Daddy and Hoff, it gives me options," said Yandle, who is one of a franchise-record four Panthers with at least 30 power-play points this season. "I think whoever's open, I've got to try and get it to them. I'd rather have those guys with the puck than me."
Yandle is the only defenseman in Panthers history to post multiple 50-point campaigns.

3. DOUBLE DADONOV

After coming so close to scoring in recent games, Dadonov went off against the Kings.
With the game tied 1-1, Mike Matheson sped around a defender before sliding a pass towards the crease where it found Dadonov, who lifted he puck over Quick's outstretched pad to end a nine-game goal drought and put the Panthers ahead 2-1 at 4:04 of the second period.

But he wasn't done there.
Later, Dadonov set off the red light once again, jumping on a loose puck after Huberdeau's attempt was poked away by Quick and sending it over the helpless goaltender to lock in his second multi-goal performance of the season and tie the game 3-3 at 13:47 of the third period.
"The whole game, we stayed in our structure," Dadonov said. "We played the same way. It didn't matter what was happening, we just kept playing. It's nice to get the win."

In the midst of his second consecutive 20-goal, 50-point season, Dadonov has registered 24 goals and 3 assists during the 2018-19 campaign. Originally a third-round pick of the Panthers in the 2007 NHL Draft, the 30-year-old skated in the 200th NHL game of his career on Saturday.

4. AMONG THE GREATS

Barkov joined some elite company on Saturday night.
By notching three assists against the Kings, Florida's superstar center pushed his point total to 81, joining Hall of Famer Pavel Bure (1999-00, 2000-01) and Olli Jokinen (2005-06, 2006-07) as the only players in the 25-year history of the franchise to reach the 80-point mark in a season.
Bure holds the franchise record for most points in a season with 94 (1999-00).
"It doesn't matter how you win, you just need to win," Barkov said. "Right now, we have 11 or 10 games left. We're still in it. We just need to keep going like this and find a way to win the games. We're on a good roll, so just keep going."
Tearing up the league as of late, Barkov leads the NHL with 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) since Feb. 17 -- a span of 15 games. With 51 assists, the 23-year-old is also now in reach of Huberdeau and Kozlov's franchise-record 53 assists, which should be a fun race to watch down the stretch.

5. MORE FOR MONTY

Montembeault is making this look easy.
In picking up his fourth straight win, the rookie became just the eighth goaltender in the last 35 years to begin his NHL career without a loss in each of his first five appearances, according to NHL Public Relations. In that 4-0-1 span, he's turned away 116 of 128 shots (.906 percent).
Against the Kings, his biggest stop came early in the second period, when he stretched out to make a sprawling highlight-reel glove save on Tyler Toffoli to keep Florida's 2-1 lead intact.

"I thought he was amazing," Boughner said. "In the first period he made some big stops, but even in the second period, where I thought we carried the play for most of the period, we let them in behind us a couple of times on 2-on-1's and had some breakdowns. He made some big saves there in order for us to take a lead into the room at the end of the second."
After the game, Boughner said he hadn't decided yet who will start tomorrow in Anaheim.

BONUS: SCEVIOUR RETURNS

After missing the last 17 games, Colton Sceviour returned to Florida's lineup on Saturday night.
Lining up on the fourth line alongside Henrik Borgstrom and Jamie McGinn, the 29-year-old veteran winger said he felt good in his first game back, racking up two shots, two blocks and one hit in 10:38 of ice time.
"The second period felt a lot better," Sceviour told FOX Sports Florida's Randy Moller during the second intermission. "That first period, it's just getting your feet into it. The game seems so much quicker when you haven't played in a while, but it felt better in that second. Hopefully it'll keep going that way."
In 50 games this season, Sceviour has registered five goals and nine assists.