Anton Lundell Has Big Night, Panthers Visit Sabres

With two goals, Anton Lundell had his biggest offensive game of the season Wednesday night in Pittsburgh as Florida’s new third line continued to contribute offensively. The Panthers certainly would like to see more of that Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres.

Lundell, 22, got his first multi-goal game since last March on Wednesday when he got two in a 5-2 win over the Penguins.

Florida coach Paul Maurice has shuffled his lines numerous times in an effort to get Lundell going offensively.

With Eetu Luostarinen and Evan Rodrigues, perhaps they have found something that works.

It certainly has looked pretty good.

Over the past couple of games, Luostarinen has two goals and three points; Rodrigues has three assists.

“It is always good to get the win, and it is always nice to get two goals even if we needed some luck,” Lundell said on Wednesday.

The Panthers have won three straight games and ride a nine-game winning streak into Buffalo tonight.

Florida is not expected to make any lineup changes tonight, meaning Steven Lorentz, Josh Mahura, and Will Lockwood will remain healthy scratches.

The starting goalies tonight will be Eric Comrie against Anthony Stolarz.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was expected to start, but he has an injury and is out.

Buffalo recalled Dustin Tokarski from AHL Rochester and will back up tonight.

Luukkonen is dealing with a lower-body injury — and is considered day-to-day.

ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ BUFFALO SABRES

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Key Bank Arena, Buffalo
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida/ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-155); Puck line (-1.5, +155); Over/Under 6.5 (+105/-130)
• Season Series — At Buffalo: Thursday. At Florida: Feb. 27 (ESPN+); April 13.
• Last Season: Florida won 3-1
  
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 54-45-8, 4 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (34-15-4) LINES

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov// 13 Sam Reinhart

21 Nick Cousins // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues

12 Jonah Gadjovich // 82 Kevin Stenlund //94 Ryan Lomberg

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

41 Anthony Stolarz

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: Josh Mahura, Steven Lorentz, Will Lockwood

PROJECTED BUFFALO SABRES (23-25-4) LINEUP

53 Jeff Skinner // 72 Tage Thompson // 21 Kyle Okposo

9 Zach Benson // 24 Dylan Cozens // 77 JJ Peterka

12 Jordan Greenway // 37 Casey Mittelstadt // 89 Alex Tuch

28 Zemgus Girgensons // 19 Peyton Krebs // 71 Victor Olofsson

26 Rasmus Dahlin // 10 Henri Jokiharju

78 Jacob Bryson // 75 Connor Clifton

33 Ryan Johnson // 6 Erik Johnson

31 Eric Comrie

40 Dustin Tokarski

Scratched: Eric Robinson

Injured: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (lower body), Owen Power (upper body), Jack Quinn (lower body), Mattias Samuelsson (upper body)

Sabres lines provided by NHL.com