RECAP: Panthers 4, Sabres 0

BUFFALO – Make it 10!

Led by a 45-save performance from Anthony Stolarz and a pair of goals from Carter Verhaeghe, the Florida Panthers pushed their franchise-record road win streak to 10 games with a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

The 11^th different team in NHL history to have a double-digit win streak away from home, the Panthers (35-15-4) have ridden their red-hot run straight up the standings and are now locked in a tie with the Boston Bruins (32-12-10) for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.

While there’s still 28 games to go until the playoffs, things are already starting to heat up.

“It feels great,” Stolarz said. “At this time of the year, points are at a premium. Obviously, we’re trying to catch Boston in the standings. Any time you can come out there, especially on a back-to-back, and take both games it’s huge for the team.”

Just 24 hours removed from kicking off their road trip with a 5-2 win at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the Panthers still managed to assert themselves against the Sabres. What they lacked in legs, they made up for in physicality, execution and emotion.

Coming out strong all season on the second half of back-to-backs, the Panthers have posted a 4-0-1 record while surrendering just one or fewer goals in four of those games.

When you look at all of their impressive stats so far this season, that’s one of the bigger ones.

“Those guys give what they have to give,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said.

Aleksander Barkov, showing off his Selke Trophy-worthy skills, helped open the scoring in Buffalo when he swiped a puck from Sabres defenseman Ryan Johnson in the offensive zone and backhanded a pass to Verhaeghe for a goal from the slot to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 9:26 of the first period.

“Barky’s so good at that,” Verhaeghe said. “He’s one of the best defensive forwards in the league. He’s so good with his stick. He gets those pucks all the time. If he’s in a 1-on-1 battle, I’m always going to try and get open because most of the time he’s going to win it.”

Gaining momentum from that goal, the Panthers nearly doubled their lead on more than one occasion soon after but were denied thanks to several huge saves from Eric Comrie.

Making a stellar stops of his own, Stolarz kept the Sabres off the board late in the period when he laid for a pad stop against Casey Mittelstadt, Buffalo’s points leader, on a shot from in close.

Executing with elite precision on the penalty kill during their road win streak, the Panthers were up to the task on their first kill of the night in the second period. Led by five saves from Stolarz – including a massive one on Tage Thompson – they kept their lead intact.

“He was so good and a key piece to the win,” Maurice said.

On a delayed penalty, the Panthers added to their lead when Matthew Tkachuk, the hottest player in the NHL since calendar flipped into 2024, fired a shot from just below the blue line that hit off Anton Lundell and then off Comrie’s glove into the twine to make it 2-0 at 17:16.

For Lundell, who struck twice in Pittsburgh yesterday, it was his third goal in two games.

For Tkachuk, it was his league-leading 33^rd point since Jan. 1.

With the Sabres trying to cut their deficit in half on the power play, Stolarz came up big for the Panthers again on the penalty kill. After initially stopping a tip from Kyle Okposo from on top of the crease, he extended his left pad to stop Okposo again on a rebound attempt.

During their road win streak, the Panthers have gone 39-for-41 (95.1%) on the PK.

After the Sabres pulled their goaltender late in the third period, Stolarz made arguably his biggest save of the night when he caught a piece of a shot with the back of his pad and then laid down to keep the puck out of the net before it was swept away.

Whenever a goaltender gets a shutout, it usually takes a desperation save or two like that to get to the finish line.

"I felt it hit the back leg,” Stolarz said of the sequence. “You kind of just fall back and hope your [butt] doesn't put it in or you knock it in. I think Fors (Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling) was there and able to get it out and swat it away. I just tried to lay flat and take out any visual of the puck."

At 18:27, Carter Verhaeghe extended the lead to 3-0 with an empty-net goal. On a late power play, the Panthers capped off the win when Ryan Lomberg – who jokingly described his unit as “power-play three” – lit the lamp to make it 4-0 at 19:48.

So hot for so long, can the Panthers even remember their last loss on the road?

“I know we did this year, but I can’t remember the game,” Lomberg said. “For us, it’s all about one game a time. Streaks are nice. We’ve had a couple winning streaks, a couple losing streaks. Every game, every night is one its own. We come to play the same way.”

For a team looking to get back to the promised land, that's exactly what you want to hear.

THEY SAID IT

“As a goalie, you kind of settle in a bit and you’re able to read the puck well [when facing lots of shots]. You’re kind of moving around. The guys did a great job moving everyone out. I think there was maybe seven or eight shots from the point that I was just able to kind of see and smother up.” – Anthony Stolarz

“I think we played pretty well. Stolie was huge back there. He made awesome saves. I think we played good defense and grinded it out. When we got our chances, we buried them. It was a good team win.” – Carter Verhaeghe

“It was big for us. We had a few days in between our last game, so we knew we wouldn’t be tired. We just had to come to play like we did last night and I thought we did a great job. It was a good win.” – Ryan Lomberg

“We didn’t have the legs we would normally have in this game and our goaltender was asked to do something that you need if you’re going to get on any kind of run or a roll. He’s been solid and so good for us. We’ve played well in front of our goaltenders all year, so sometimes you don’t notice how well they’ve played for us. But tonight, you did.” – Paul Maurice

CATS STATS

- Aleksander Barkov has earned his sixth 40-assist season, setting a new franchise record.

- The Panthers have opened the scoring in 17 of their 28 road games this season.

- Matthew Tkachuk has registered at least one point in 18 of his last 20 games.

- The Panthers led 33-18 in hits.

- Ryan Lomberg recorded a team-high eight hits.

- The Panthers have outscored the opposition 17-4 over their last four games.

- The Panthers controlled 77.22% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 when Anton Lundell was deployed.

- Anthony Stolarz’s 45 saves are the third most in a shutout in franchise history.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Can they keep it going?

With their sights set on 11 straight road wins, the Panthers will wrap up their three-game trip with a matchup against the cross-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

The official watch party will be at Funky buddha in Oakland Park.

For more information, visit FloridaPanthers.com/CatsOnTap.