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Barkov, Florida Panthers Ready for Game 2 Against Stars in Finland

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Aleksander barkov
The Florida Panthers celebrate with hometown hero Sasha Barkov after they beat the Dallas Stars 6-4 in the opener of the NHL Global Series in Tampere, Finland, on Friday. // Photo courtesy @FlaPanthers

Sasha Barkov has played in some big games in his 12 seasons with the Florida Panthers but he admitted Friday hit a little different.

After all, this was the first time he played in an NHL game in his hometown of Tampere.

In 2018, Barkov played his first games in Finland as an NHLer, but those came a couple of hours away in Helsinki.

This was home.

And Barkov gave the hometown fans something to cheer about with a first-period goal and a total of four points.

“This game, obviously, is an NHL regular-season game, but for me, it was not a normal regular-season game,” said Barkov, who has a pair of five-point games over the course of his career. “For me to be able to come home to Finland, and play here especially in my hometown, to bring them — drag them — here and then play, score a goal was an amazing feeling.”

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Sam Reinhart, who scored a pair of goals off passes from Barkov including a sweet no-look number, said he understands what a special day that was.

“I think for him and all (Florida’s Finnish players), I remember playing my first game in Vancouver,” Reinhart said. “It was something that you thought about, but this wasn’t even on his radar growing up. So it adds to that moment. For him to perform that way, on that stage, is nothing new for us to see.’’

Said Paul Maurice: “We’re happy for him, but we have seen that game from him and we have seen it quite often. That’s why he is a star in our league. It’s nice that people who were part of his development, and not just his hockey development, like teachers in town. I asked him if he lived here, and he said ‘about a mile.’ His life is right here, in this area. So, there are a lot of proud Finns tonight, from his third-grade teacher to his pee-wee hockey coach. … It seems right. He is a special man, a special person for our team. Everyone is cheering for him.”

Now, the challenge for Florida is gearing up for another challenge from the Stars.

The Panthers jumped all over Dallas in the first period, leading 3-1 after 20 minutes. By the third, it was 6-2 before the Stars got a couple late.

Game 2 is today at noon ET.

“Totally uncompetitive in the first period and that’s the game,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “You spot the Stanley Cup champions, you don’t show up in the first period and spot them a 3-1 lead. The rest of the game, when we started to compete, I thought it was a pretty even game. But you can’t be that uncompetitive against a team like that.”

— Reinhart has nine goals this season, three of which have come shorthanded which leads the league.

Coming into Friday, 11 NHL teams had failed to score a single shorthanded goal.

Reinhart leads all NHL players with 29 power-play goals and eight shorties over the past two seasons.

— Aaron Ekblad had three assists — including two primaries in the first period — for his his eighth three-assist game. That ties Matthew Tkachuk for third-most in franchise history.

— DeBoer said he would “sleep” on making lineup changes following Friday’s loss but did not indicate what they would be.

Earlier in the week, he said he would consider playing goalie Jake Oettinger in both Finland games.

Yet.

— The starting goalies: The Panthers turn to Spencer Knight for the second time on this roadtrip; Casey DeSmith (2-1-0) gets his fourth start for Dallas.

— The Panthers are 4-0 on this trip with the final game coming today. Florida has outscored the Rangers, Islanders, Sabres, and Stars 20-10 in the four wins thus far.

— Barkov and the NHLPA’s Goals & Dreams donated $20,000 worth of hockey equipment to the Tappara RY Hockey Program.

“As a part of returning with my teammates to play NHL regular-season games in Tampere, I’m glad that we can help get more children in Finland on the ice by donating hockey equipment from our NHLPA Goals & Dreams program to Tappara RY,” Barkov said in a statement.

  • Complete video of the Florida Panthers media availabilities in Helsinki and Tampere — including Barkov and his Finnish teammates answering questions from the local media — is on the FHN YouTube Channel.

ON DECK: GAME 13
NHL GLOBAL SERIES AT TAMPERE, FINLAND
FLORIDA PANTHERS V. DALLAS STARS (GAME 2)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (8-3-1) LINES

17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe// 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

13 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 70 Jesper Boqvist

10 AJ Greer // 92 Tomas Nosek // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

88 Nate Schmidt // 26 Uvis Balinskis

30 Spencer Knight

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Chris Driedger

Injured: Jonah Gadjovich (back), Justin Sourdif (UBI)

PROJECTED DALLAS STARS (7-3-0) LINES

14 Jamie Benn // 24 Roope Hintz // 11 Logan Stankoven

21 Jason Robertson // 53 Wyatt Johnston // 63 Evgenii Dadonov

27 Mason Marchment // 95 Matt Duchene // 91 Tyler Seguin

18 Sam Steel // 22 Mavrik Bourque // 15 Colin Blackwell

4 Miro Heiskanen // 3 Mathew Dumba

55 Thomas Harley // 46 Ilya Lyubushkin

23 Esa Lindell // 5 Nils Lundkvist

1 Casey DeSmith

29 Jake Oettinger

Scratched: Oskar Back, Brendan Smith, Kyle Capobianco, Magnus Hellberg

Injured: None

Dallas Stars lines provided by NHL.com

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