XOXO: Florida Panthers 5, Pittsburgh Penguins 2

The Florida Panthers were guests of the Pittsburgh Penguins for Valentine’s Day — and they made themselves comfortable.

After a defensive-minded first period, the Panthers opened things up with four in the second and handed the struggling Penguins their third straight loss, this one 5-2 at PPG Arena.

Florida swept the three-game season series against the Penguins, a team that remains out of a playoff spot.

Meanwhile, the Panthers have won three straight and 16 of their past 21 as they continue to roll and pulled within two points of Boston for the Atlantic Division lead.

Florida has now won nine straight road games.

Matthew Tkachuk had himself a night, scoring Florida’s opening goal before assisting on two others.

Anton Lundell also scored twice, getting his first multi-goal game since March 30 at Montreal.

Florida again snuffed out Pittsburgh’s lifeless power play, killing off four penalties on Tuesday after the Penguins went 1-for-8 with the advantage the last time these two met up a few weeks ago.

The Penguins did appear to take a 1-0 lead on their third power play chance early in the third on a goal from Rickard Rakell — only Florida challenged that Lars Eller played the puck with a high stick first. He did.

That goal came off the board and the Panthers scored three goals before the 10-minute mark of the second and made it 4-0 at 13:02 on Lundell’s first.

NEWS y NOTES

Sam Reinhart had 12 goals and 13 points in his previous nine road games, but fell short of becoming the fourth player in NHL history with a 10-game road goal streak.

Auston Matthews did it last in 2022.

— Tkachuk has 13 goals and 30 points in 17 games since 2024 started — which is most by any NHL player during that span.

— The Panthers scored their 44th power-play goal which ranks fifth in the NHL.

— Florida is 13-0 when scoring at least five goals this season.

— Tkachuk and Gadjovich scored 34 seconds apart, marking the second-fastest road goals by the Panthers this season. Florida scored twice in 29 seconds against Edmonton on Dec. 16, 2023.

— Tkachuk got his 20th three-point game since joining the Panthers last season.

Among all players, only Connor McDavid (31), Nikita Kucherov (25), Nathan MacKinnon (24) and Leon Draisaitl (24) have more during that span.

He also became the sixth player in Panthers history to record 20 career three-point games, joining Sasha Barkov (50 GP), Jonathan Huberdeau (49 GP), Olli Jokinen (29 GP), Pavel Bure (23 GP) and Stephen Weiss (22 GP).

GOALS OF THE GAME

• Panthers 1, Penguins 0 (4:28, 2nd): Moments after the Penguins had a scoring chance snuffed out by Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Tkachuk cashes in on a give-and-go from Evan Rodrigues. More to come…
• Panthers 2, Penguins 0 (5:02, 2nd): Jonah Gadjovich knocks in a point shot from Brandon Montour.
• Panthers 3, Penguins 0 (8:27, 2nd PP): Aaron Ekblad gets the puck, works into the right circle and rifles off a shot that beats Tristan Jarry cold.
• Panthers 4, Penguins 0 (13:02, 2nd): Tkachuk picks up his second assist of the night by threading a pass to a streaking Anton Lundell who puts it in the back of the net.
• Panthers 4, Penguins 1 (15:24, 2nd): Jake Guentzel fires off a shot with Bryan Rust in front and it gets past Bobrovsky. The Panthers challenge for goalie interference, one they do not win.
• Panthers 5, Penguins 1 (5:35, 3rd): Eetu Luostarinen beats Sidney Crosby to a puck, feeds it to Lundell who spins and fires — only the shot is blocked and the puck flies into the air and lands over Jarry and in the back of the net.
• Panthers 5, Penguins 2 (6:07, 3rd): John Ludvig, waived by the Panthers and claimed by the Pens in camp, whips one from the right circle for his first NHL goal. Congrats.

GR’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME

1. Matthew Tkachuk, Florida

2. Anton Lundell, Florida

3. Aaron Ekblad, Florida

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
• 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.