Marchand gets 3 points, Panthers shut out Stars

DALLAS -- Brad Marchand had two goals and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves for the Florida Panthers in a 4-0 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

“I really liked the way that we played through the neutral zone. That’s usually where we will have really good or really bad games and it’s kind of how we play through the neutral zone. So, we did a really good job there tonight,” Marchand said. “Sometimes you get bounces, but I think after we had a day off we all felt a lot better. Coming back, the elevation can be tough in Colorado and with the travel, but we had a really good day off and I think we all felt better today.”

Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist, Sam Bennett had a goal, and Sam Reinhart had two assists for the Panthers (16-13-2), who have won four of their past five games. Bobrovsky got his third shutout of the season and 52nd in the NHL.

“That was a good performance by our group, so it was defensively great and offensively great. We did a great job to slow [the Stars] down. It’s a fast team. It’s a good team but we didn’t give them anything. It was good play by our group,” Bobrovsky said.

Jake Oettinger made 19 saves for the Stars (21-7-5), who have lost consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

“Two losses in a row, we didn’t know the feeling for so long so it’s hard," Dallas forward Radek Faksa said. "They are two (straight) Stanley Cup champions for a reason, so they showed us a lesson today. This may be good, we got a little slap. Because the last few games we got a little sloppy, I feel like. We need to start working again and play our game. Good stuff for us, now we’ve got to move forward and learn from this.”

Said Stars coach Glen Gultuzan: “They brought their A-game, they brought their A-penalty kill, they brought their A-power play. They got a power-play goal. They brought their A-5-on-5 game and their goalie was good when he needed to be. He wasn’t tested a lot but he made the saves look easy, the ones that he had.”

Lundell gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the second period. He toe-dragged around Stars defenseman Alexander Petrovic, skated toward the goal line and tucked the puck in around a sprawling Oettinger.

“I loved our game, because we all understood what was going on, on the ice. There wasn’t anybody on a different program and we played real fast and real tight,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It felt like that we had been playing better lately and we played our game in Utah, but that’s a tough back-to-back. We deserved the loss, but you have to get off the mat here in this League because you are going to get beat. You are going to have five or six of those a year where you just get beat bad, and you need to be able to rebound.”

Bennett made it 2-0 at 5:45 when he deflected the puck in off his skate at the right side of the crease. Officials reviewed the goal to see if there was a distinct kicking motion, but the call on the ice stood as a good goal.

“I don’t think you can win too many games with [low] shots on net,” Dallas forward Colin Blackwell said. “I think we need to do just a better job of generating 5-on-5 across the board and getting to the dirty areas. They did a good job of keeping us outside the blue paint tonight and getting those second, third opportunities. I think that has to be a key for us moving forward.”

Marchand extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal at 19:45. Reinhart sent a no-look backhand pass from the slot to Marchand in the right circle, where he buried a snap shot past Oettinger's glove.

“We obviously know we didn’t play our best game against Colorado, but we know how to play and that’s the most important thing,” Florida forward A.J. Greer said. “It’s all about the execution and today I feel like we played a really good team game and obviously [Bobrovsky] was great at the net as well.”

Marchand scored his second of the night into an empty net at 17:12 of the third period for the 4-0 final.

“Clearly not enough today how we played,” Stars defenseman Esa Lindell said. “Today it just felt kind of everything. What they did, they do it well. It made our night tough today. I don’t think we really created a lot [at 5-on-5], so I think it just comes down to execution and battling.”

NOTES: Reinhart tied Scott Mellanby (344) for sixth on the Panthers' all-time points list. ... Bobrovsky passed Tomas Vokoun (51) and tied Tuukka Rask (52) for the sixth-most shutouts in NHL history by a goaltender born outside of North America. The only others with more are Dominik Hasek (81), Henrik Lundqvist (64), Pekka Rinne (60), Evgeni Nabokov (59) and Jaroslav Halak (53).