FHN TODAY: Florida Panthers Look for Winning Streak in Dallas

I am the first to admit the movie Major League II is not the greatest sequel ever made but it has given us one line we have used a lot during this Florida Panthers season.

Cleveland skipper Lou Brown, former manager of the Toledo Mud Hens and the local Tire World, is trying to pump up his team — which, like the Panthers were in a slump following a very successful season.

“OK, we won a game yesterday,’’ Brown extols. “If we win today, it’s called ‘two in a row.’ And if we win again tomorrow, it’s called a ‘winning streak.’ It has happened before.’’

There are plenty of other quotable scenes from that movie (not as many as the original, but hey, that one is a classic) only the winning streak line certainly applies to the Panthers.

Yes, Ricky Vaughn, winning streaks have happened before.

Just not around here. Not lately, anyway.

The Panthers won their second straight game Friday night, holding on for dear life in the final minutes to beat the host Red Wings 3-2.

Florida now heads to Dallas for the second meeting of the season against the Stars as it looks for its first true winning streak of the season.

The Panthers are not playing perfect hockey right now, but what they’re doing now is playing a strong and solid game.

It is going to take a lot to beat the Stars on Sunday afternoon but, again, it has happened before.

FLORIDA HOCKEY NOW

Aaron Ekblad grew up on the Canadian side of the Detroit River in Windsor and loved his Detroit Red Wings.

He certainly has not showed them much love since the Panthers made him the top pick of the 2014 NHL Draft. The Panthers have won 17 of their past 20 in The D either at Joe Louis Arena or Little Caesars Arena.

Ekblad has played a big role in a lot of those wins.

— The Panthers got big games from their big players on Friday night as Ekblad, Sasha Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky were the heroes in Detroit.

— The View from Detroit Hockey Now: The Detroit Red Wings still cannot figure out Bobrovsky as special teams did the Red Wings in against the Panthers.

— We have plenty of postgame video up from Detroit featuring Ekblad, Bobrovsky and coach Paul Maurice — who, like Ekblad, also grew up in Windsor and still has a lot of ties there.

There is also pregame from Matthew Tkachuk talking about his All-Star selection from Friday morning.

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NATIONAL HOCKEY NOW

A little bit of drama with the Washington Capitals on Friday night as Trevor van Riemsdyk takes blame for the loss to the Preds as Anthony Mantha did not get much playing time.

— We don’t know of a Tim Hortons in western Pennsylvania, but Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby is in another cool ad for the coffee chain — which most definitely needs to come back to South Florida.

Yeah, they were here in Broward back in the day. We’ll use another baseball movie quote, this one from Annie Savoy: You can look it up.

— Speaking of Broward, the two former Florida Panthers (Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar) were not the Calgary Flames initial All-Star selection. That went to Nazem Kadri.

— And, while Cale Makar is a freakishly good player, the NHL got the Colorado Avalanche selection wrong.

— The Montreal Canadiens will be without Kaiden Guhle for the next couple of months due to injury.

— The San Jose Sharks claimed Mikey Eyssimont off waivers from Winnipeg and he sounds ready to rock.

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT DALLAS STARS

• When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m.
• Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Last season: Split 1-1
• This season (Stars lead 1-0): Dallas 6, Florida 4 (Nov. 17)
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 24-20-2, 3 tie
• Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday at Colorado, 9:30 p.m.