In Sunrise, the Panthers took a 3-1 lead into the third period on Wednesday night, and then held off the Dallas Stars in the third period for a 5-4 win.
The Panthers improved to 15-8-2.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in the win.
The win snapped a three-game home losing skid.
“We needed it,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We have been doing the right things for a while. That was Evan Rodrigues’ best performance and we can talk about the four points, but I just liked all the other things he did.”
Trailing 3-1 headed to the third the Stars rallied to tie on goals from Mason Marchment with 39 seconds gone in the period, and Evgenii Dadonov at 4:15 for the 3-3 tie.
“We were close in that game. Even down 3-1, we felt like we were right there,” Dadonov said. “We actually do come back and then unfortunately give up another two goals. It was up and down. We had to push it and when we got those two goals, maybe we relaxed. It was tough.”
The Stars dropped to 14-7-3).
“Tough game,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “You had two good teams going at it. I thought momentum shifted a number of different times. We got off to a great start, [but] they found a way to get the first goal and took it for a little while. Then we pushed back. It’s tough. You can’t give up five goals on the road. That is a big ask to score that much.”
Alexander Barkov restored the Panthers lead 37 seconds after the Dadonov goal to make it 4-3.
Evan Rodrigues scored his second off the game, off the power play, with eight minutes gone in the third for a 5-3 lead.
“I was just going to the net and the puck was there,” Barkov said. “It was, pretty much, like an empty net. When we shoot the puck and move in the offensive zone, all sorts of chances will be there.”
Dallas’ Thomas Harley hit off the power play at 12:26 to cut the deficit back to one at 5-4, but that was as close as the Stars could make it.when his point shot trickled past Bobrovsky for the 5-4 final.
Rodrigues posted his first of the game in the opening stanza at 4:39 to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
The Stars tied it on a marker from Radek Faksa at 13:42.
Sam Reinhart reclaimed the lead for the Panthers at 18:14 of the first for a 2-1 advantage headed to the second period.
“Our message in pregame was we knew this would feel like a playoff game, because that is a great team over there,” Rodrigues said. “We wanted to treat it like the playoffs, limit momentum swings, and we did a great job with that.”
With 24 seconds of fresh ice used in the middle frame, Carter Verhaeghe pushed the lead out to 3-1 for the Panthers.
Jake Oettinger made 26 saves in the loss.
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