Panthers contingent participating in 4 Nations Face-Off come up big in win over Senators

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on Feb 8, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SUNRISE, Fla. — The NHL’s focus starting next week will be on the 4 Nations Face-Off, the league’s midseason tournament that will feature the NHL’s top players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden that is serving as a re-introduction to NHL players participating in best-on-best tournaments.

On Saturday, Florida Panthers representatives for each country came up big in their final game before the two-week break that coincides with the tournament.

One player from each country — the United States’ Matthew Tkachuk, Finland’s Aleksander Barkov, Sweden’s Gustav Forsling and Canada’s Sam Bennett — scored in the second period to lead the Panthers to a 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators at Amerant Bank Arena. Tkachuk also had the primary assist on two of the goals, giving him three points in the game and 16 points in his past nine games (including four three-point outings) in addition to a six-game goal streak.

Florida improves to 34-20-3 and has won nine of its past 13 games (including five consecutive games at home) to go into the break atop the Atlantic Division. Ottawa falls to 29-23-4 and has lost three consecutive games.

The Panthers have a league-high eight players participating in the tournament, which runs from Feb. 12-20. Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola are joining Barkov on Team Finland, while Sam Reinhart is on Team Canada with Bennett.

Reinhart had the primary assist on Tkachuk’s goal for his 600th career NHL point. Lundell capped scoring with an empty-net goal while Ottawa was on the power play. It was Florida’s 12th short-handed goal of the season, tying the franchise’s single-season record.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 27 shots he faced, including the final 24 he saw after giving up a goal to Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk on the power play 6:38 into regulation. Bobrovsky improves to 23-12-2 on the season and has won five of his past six starts. He has given up two goals or fewer in each of those five wins.