CALGARY – The Florida Panthers will look to end their longest trip of the season on a high note when they battle the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.
On the trip, the Panthers have gone 2-2-0 while traversing three different time zones.
“I think we’ve been learning,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “We’re going to find out tonight. That’s the thing that you want at this time of the year. The things that you worked on in training camp, you want to continue to work on and you want to watch your team learn as it suffers the ups and downs of the daily NHL schedule.”
After being shut out in their two previous games, the Panthers responded with a 5-1 win at Edmonton on Saturday. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each posted three points in the win, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 38 of 39 shots in net.
Jumping on the Oilers early, the Panthers led 3-0 after the first period on goals from Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov. After Bennett tacked on another goal in the second, Verhaeghe made it 5-1 with a strike just 21 seconds into the third.
With the win, Florida improved to 18-10-2.
“Right from the puck drop, our line felt good,” Bennett said. “We were skating really well, moving pucks, cycling. Our cycle game was really good. We were getting a lot of chances to the net. It was nice for our line to contribute offensively.”
With a bug going around the locker room, Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich will each miss their third straight game due to an illness. Missing last game due to a lower-body injured suffered on Thursday against Vancouver, Aaron Ekblad will return to the lineup.
With Bobrovsky getting a break, Anthony Stolarz will start against Calgary. In eight appearances this season, the 29-year-old backup has been very solid, posting a 4-2-1 record with a .915 save percentage. In his career against the Flames, he’s gone 1-1-1.
Hitting a nice milestone, Dmitry Kulikov will skate in the 900th game of his NHL career.
“He’s the best pro version of himself because he works hard at it and he tries to get better at it,” said Maurice, who also coached Kulikov in Winnipeg. “He had two or three good heavy hits in Edmonton. His game is better. He’s more relaxed in his own skin. He knows his game. He’s not trying to get on the power play. He’s just going out and playing hard. He’s a good quiet story that the guys in the room would know and love.”
Sitting at 12-14-5, the Flames snapped out of their four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Lighting on Saturday. A.J. Greer, MacKenize Weegar, Yegor Sharangovich and Connor Zary all scored against Tampa Bay, while Dan Vladar stopped 31 shots.
Struggling on both sides of the puck in the early goings of this season, the Flames rank 20th in the NHL on offense (3.00 goals scored per game) and 24th on defense (3.39 goals allowed per game). Their power play also ranks 28th with a 12% rate of success.
Nazem Kadri leads Calgary in scoring with 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists). Blake Coleman is second with 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) and enters tonight’s tilt riding a career-long six-game point streak in which he’s produced two goals and four assists.
As for the two pieces that were sent to the Flames in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk in the summer of 2022, Weegar ranks first among the team’s defensemen in scoring with 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists), while Jonathan Huberdeau has notched 15 points (four goals, 11 assists).
Out since Dec. 2 with a finger injury, Jacob Markstrom was activated by Calgary from injured reserve on Sunday and could potentially start against Florida. In 16 appearances this season, the 33-year-old veteran owns a 6-8-2 record with a .896 save percentage.
If Markstrom can’t go, look for Vladar to get the nod.
Meeting for the first time this season, the Panthers went 0-1-1 against the Flames in 2022-23. In those games, four different players recorded multiple points for Florida. Reinhart led the way with a pair of goals, while Tkachuk tallied a goal and an assist.
“It’s huge,” Bennett said when asked about the importance of pocketing points tonight. “This has been a long road trip. To end it on a positive note would be big for us.”
PREGAME QUOTES
“We’re not in first place, but we like our game. We like the way we play. [Matthew Tkachuk] will get hot at some point and streak and they’ll say he’s back, and I’ll say he was never really gone.” – Paul Maurice
“There’s so much belief in what we’re building here. No one person is more important than the next. I’m not going to give up what we’re trying to build here to cheat for a little bit more offense. That’s not the way it works here. We’ve built an unbelievable culture.” – Matthew Tkachuk
FIVE CATS STATS
- The Panthers have surrendered just one power-play goal over their last five games.
- The Panthers are allowing just 2.41 goals against per game on the road this season.
- Carter Verhaeghe has scored in four of seven games in the month of December.
- Niko Mikkola leads Florida with 56 blocked shots.
- The Panthers are 10-0-2 when leading after the first period this season.
PROJECTED LINEUP (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Forwards
Evan Rodrigues – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg – Steven Lorentz – Will Lockwood
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
Goaltenders
Anthony Stolarz
Sergei Bobrovsky
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
- Dec. 18: F Justin Sourdif recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
- Dec. 16: F Will Lockwood recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
- Dec. 15: Uvis Balinskis loaned to Charlotte (AHL)
- Dec. 7: F Josh Davies signed to a three-year, entry-level contract
HOW TO WATCH
When: Monday, Dec. 18 at 9:30 p.m. ET
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome – Calgary, AB
TV & Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports+
Radio: 790 WAXY (Dade/Broward); 1230 WBZT (Palm Beach); 100.3 WCTH (Florida Keys); 101.7 WCZR (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM App & Streaming 932; Panthers App
