In Sunrise, the Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin returned to the lineup for his season debut on Monday night, and potted a goal late in the third period to force extra time.
“It was emotional,” Seguin said. “Kind of this whole day, trying to make your mind your friend. A lot of excitement, a lot of nerves and frankly a lot of emotion. It was a long journey to get to this point. It’s been tough watching our team going through everything they have this whole year and not being able to help, so it was nice to finally get out there.”
Unfortunately for the Stars, Florida Panthers took the game with a goal from Aleksander Barkov in the extra session.
“They’re a great team battling for their playoff spot and give it everything they have,” Barkov said. “We want to play as well, too. We did that and came out with two points.”
Spencer Knight made 25 saves to get his fourth straight win to start his NHL career.
“A good test, a good learning curve,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “Things change quickly. He settled down after that and found a way to win.”
Jonathan Huberdeau and Nikita Gusev scored for Florida to give them a 2-0 lead.
Joe Pavelski cut the lead to 2-1.
“We’re playing desperate hockey right now,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “For us to come back, that’s a really good hockey club over there, man. I don’t think we had everyone going early in the game, which I don’t understand, but as the game went on, we got going and it was a huge comeback in the third period to get those two quick goals. I give us credit for battling back and the desperation needed to get back and get that point, but again, it’s just disappointing when you shoot yourself in the foot and you keep losing these games like we did.”
Gustav Forsling and MacKenzie Weegar also scored for the Panthers in regulation.
Roope Hintz had a goal for the Stars, and Joel Kiviranta scored in the third period to cut a 4-2 Panthers lead to 4-3.
Anton Khudobin got the start for Dallas and yielded four goals, making 11 saves before getting the hook.
“I didn’t think he had very much help in front of him on those goals,” Bowness said about Khudobin. “I had to do something to change it. It wasn’t his fault those pucks were going in. It was the guys in front of him.”
Jake Oettinger made 27 saves in relief.
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