With both James Reimer and Roberto Luongo sill on injured reserve, Boughner said that he considered starting 21-year-old rookie Sam Montembeault, who has yet to appear in an NHL game, in Buffalo on Thursday, but opted instead to continue rolling with a red-hot Sateri.
"Harri had such a good game (against the Islanders) that we wanted to continue that," Boughner said after Saturday's morning skate. "He played well again in Buffalo, so he's back in tonight. Right now, as much as we'd like to give Sammy a game, I think Harri's deserved a chance to start again. Hopefully he can do the same."
Boughner said Luongo and Reimer both skated on Saturday morning and could potentially return to practice as early as Monday. Luongo has been out of the lineup with a lower-body injury since Dec. 4, while Reimer has missed the last three games after suffering a groin injury in Dallas on Jan. 23.
Sateri has posted a 2.35 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage over his last three starts.
"After they got off the ice today, they both felt great," Boughner said. "That's really a first for us, that both felt great at the same time. Hopefully they keep doing that in the next couple days and we'll see them with full equipment on in a practice here shortly."
With back-to-back victories out of the break, the Panthers now trail the Philadelphia Flyers by just eight points for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand. With 33 games left to play in the 2017-18 season, Boughner said he's not looking too much at the big picture right now.
"There's still a lot of hockey left," Boughner said. "I think a while back we were really concentrating and scoreboard watching… It's tough psychologically to do that every day. I think that we're just taking it day by day now and trying to just concentrate on the team that night and trying to get those points and then concentrating on the next team. We're trying not to look too far ahead."
The Red Wings (21-21-8), who sit two points ahead of the Panthers in the standings, are coming off a 4-1 victory in Carolina on Friday night. Detroit is 3-1-2 on the second night of back-to-backs this season and is expected to start Jimmy Howard after backup Petr Mrazek made 36 saves against the Hurricanes.
Dylan Larkin leads the Red Wings with 38 points (8-30-38), while right-winger Anthony Mantha has contributed 14 assists and a team-high 16 goals. All-Star defenseman Mike Green has 26 points (5-21-26) in 50 games, which is good enough for 25th among all NHL blueliners.
Florida is 1-1-1 against the Red Wings this season, most recently suffering a 4-2 loss in Detroit on Jan. 5.
"We thought we played a good game in Detroit last time, and we didn't get anything for it," Boughner said.
