Seven Finnish-born players were on the roster, each of whom was on the ice in the opening game, including Stars forward Roope Hintz and defensemen Esa Lindell (goal, assist) and Miro Heiskanen, as well as Panthers forwards Barkov and Anton Lundell (goal). and Eetu Luostarinen and defender Niko Mikkola (assist).

Sam Reinhart had two goals and an assist and defenseman Aaron Ekblad had three assists for the Panthers (8-3-1), who have won four straight games. Sergei Bobrovsky had 32 saves.

Mavrik Bourque scored his first NHL goal and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for the Stars (7-3-0), who had won two straight.

The teams complete the back-to-back series on Saturday (noon ET; NHLN, SN1, Victory+, SCRIPPS).

Barkov is the first Finnish-born player to score four points in one of Finland’s ten NHL regular season games.

The Panthers captain finished off a nice play, making it 2-0 at 7:11 of the first after Reinhart softly deflected a pass from Evan Rodrigues.

Rodrigues opened the scoring 28 seconds into the game with the NHL’s fastest regular season goal outside of North America, converting a shot from Ekblad for a 1-0 lead. Barkov had the second assist.

Tyler Seguin made it 2-1 10:45 minutes into the first round with a bench shot from the end boards that bounced off Bobrovsky into the net.

Lundell deflected a shot from Ekblad past Oettinger for the power play goal at 15:52 of the first minute, making it 3-1.

Lindell converted a blind backhand pass from Jason Robertson at 1:32 of the second to make it 3-2.

Reinhart made the final score 4-2 with a shorthanded goal at 6:07 of the second minute. Barkov had the first assist.

Reinhart also made the final score 6-2 at 10:08 of the third period by completing a pass from Barkov.

Mackie Samoskevich scored at 2:31 of the third period for a 6-2 lead.

Bourque scored at 15:38 of the third minute to make it 6-3, and Jamie Benn scored with 34 seconds left to make the final score 6-4.