Confident Panthers kick off road trip at Coyotes

The Florida Panthers will look to extend their win streak to five games when they open a four-game road trip on Tuesday against the Arizona Coyotes in Tempe, Ariz.

Florida defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 to pick up its fourth straight win on Saturday, capping a brief two-game homestand.

Carter Verhaeghe put up a goal and an assist for the second straight game, and forward Eetu Luostarinen had his first career two-goal game.

"I think we've all bought into playing the right way and doing whatever it takes to win," center Sam Bennett said. "In the third period, it's important to play the right way, and then once you get the lead, shut it down and don't give up any odd-man rushes, don't turn the puck over, and we've done a great job of that this season."

Sam Reinhart leads all Panthers with 23 goals and 44 points in 36 games this season. Captain Aleksander Barkov has eight assists over his last four games, and Matthew Tkachuk has five assists in his previous four.

Florida, second in the Atlantic Division, is 8-4-0 in its last 12 and 10-7-2 on the road this season.

"Our team is playing really good hockey right now, so we'll have some confidence going into this road trip for sure," Bennett said.

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is 17-9-1 with a 2.50 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage in 27 appearances this season.

Arizona will go for its third straight victory following a 2-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. The Coyotes begin a five-game, 10-day homestand to open the 2024 calendar year. Arizona has won six of seven and is 12-5-0 on home ice this season.

"Honestly, the last two games, I don't think we wavered. We were consistent," said Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny. "I am happy about the mindset, what we're trying to do, the focus, the communication on the bench — everything right now is pretty good."

Netminder Connor Ingram made 28 saves to pick up his fourth shutout of the season in the win over the Ducks, tying him with Pittsburgh's Tristan Jarry for the league lead. Ingram and teammate Karel Vejmelka combined for four shutouts in December — tying the franchise record for shutouts in a month.

Friday was the fifth time this season the Coyotes have won when scoring two goals or fewer.

"I think that's just the buy-in," Ingram said. "How many games have we won this year 1-0, 2-0, 2-1? Winning games like that counts just as much as a 7-6 shootout, so if you can get it done that way, why not?"

Ingram is 13-7-0 with a 2.49 GAA and a .919 save percentage in 22 games.

Defenseman Sean Durzi has seven assists and eight points over his last six games. Clayton Keller has four goals in six games and a team-leading 31 points in 35 games this season.

Lawson Crouse leads all Coyotes scorers with 16 goals in 34 games.

Tuesday is the first of two meetings between the clubs. Arizona visits Florida on Jan. 24 to cap the season series.

—Field Level Media