Texas Shootout: Dallas Stars 6, Florida Panthers 5 (SO)

The Dallas Stars ended the four-game winning streak of the Florida Panthers in a wild game in which Jonathan Huberdeau forced overtime with a wristshot in the final minute.

Florida ended up being shutout in its two shootout attempts and lost 6-5.

The Panthers have now lost nine of its past 10 road games and dropped to 4-4-5 away from Sunrise.

Florida had outscored its opponents 24-10 during the four-game (home) winning streak as the team has not won a road game since Dec. 10 in Arizona.

Joe Thornton, 42, was honored during the game for playing in his 1,700th NHL game, sixth all-time.

Thornton is now 31 games away from tying Ron Francis for fifth and 33 away from Jaromir Jagr for fourth.

2022 has started with a bang!

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Sasha Barkov scored Florida’s first two goals and came real close to registering his third hat trick in a game which featured another offensive outburst by the Panthers.

Dallas, which had not played since Dec. 20, would not be outdone in the offensive side of the game.

Florida took the initial lead on Barkov’s first of the night, a power play slapshot from the high slot on a nice pass from Jonathan Huberdeau at 8:28.

The Panthers had a number of high-end scoring chances on Braden Holtby in the opening period — including ones from Carter Verhaeghe, Thornton and Maxim Mamin — but the Stars were able to tie it up at 12:53 when Michael Raffl posted up Radko Gudas and deflected a John Klingberg shot.

The two teams then went on to combine for six goals in the second period as the lead went back-and-forth.

Barkov made it 2-1 on a shorthanded goal 18 seconds into the period, driving in on Holtby and scoring off a nice forehand-backhand move.

Then it was Denis Gurianov deflecting a Jamie Benn shot to end that power play chance at 1:46.

Florida made it 3-2 on Patric Hornqvist’s deflection of a Gus Forsling shot only to see Roope Hintz deflect a shot at 13:10 to tie it.

Dallas got its first lead of the night by scoring twice in a span of 28 seconds.

After Hintz scored, Gurianov picked a loose puck from Huberdeau at the top of the Florida zone and fed Tyler Seguin down low.

The Panthers were not done, MacKenzie Weegar scoring with 2:43 left in the period as his shot squeezed inside the right post as Hornqvist played blocker.

Dallas retook the lead at 6:24 of the third when Sergei Bobrovsky came way out to play a puck and Gurianov picked it off.

He fed it to Benn, who scored as Bobrovsky was late getting into position.

For the final two-plus minutes of regulation, Florida kept the puck deep in the Dallas zone and finally tied it with the empty net when Huberdeau scored with 28.5 seconds remaining.

Huberdeau’s goal came on a wicked wristshot from the top of the left circle that beat Holtby on Florida’s 42nd shot of the night.

Both teams had numerous chances in the overtime session but failed to get anything through.

In the shootout, Huberdeau and Anton Lundell were stopped as Dallas scored on both of its offerings.

GR’S THREE STARS OF THE GAME

1. Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida

2. Sasha Barkov, Florida

3. Denis Gurianov, Dallas

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT CAROLINA HURRICANES

• When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Where: PNC Arena; Raleigh, N.C.
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida
• Radio: WKIS 99.9 FM-2
• Last season: Carolina won 6-0-2
• All-time regular season series: Carolina leads 69-45-11, 8 ties
• This season: @Florida 5, Carolina 2 (Nov. 6)