Aleksander Barkov thoroughly enjoyed his homecoming on Friday, leading the Florida Panthers to a 6-4 victory over the Dallas Stars in an NHL Global Series game on Friday in Tampere, Finland.

The Tampere native scored a goal and three assists as Florida won its fourth straight. The Panthers captain has six points since returning Monday from a lower-body injury that sidelined him eight games.

He wasn’t the only Finn to score the goal either. Florida’s Anton Lundell scored his sixth goal of the season and Niko Mikkola added an assist. Esa Lindell scored a goal and an assist for the Stars, who ended their two-game winning streak.

Florida went out early and never looked back, with Barkov getting the second assist on Evan Rodrigues’ second goal of the season. Rodrigues, who last scored in the season opener at Florida on Oct. 8, redirected a blueline shot from Aaron Ekblad and beat Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger just 28 seconds into the game.

That was the first of three assists for Ekblad.

Oettinger, who entered the game with a goals-against average of 1.84, conceded a season-high six goals on 28 shots.

Rodrigues got an assist on Barkov’s second goal of the season less than seven minutes later, making it 2-0. Sam Reinhart also assisted.

Reinhart added two goals for a three-point performance. His third shorthanded goal came in the second half, and he scored an even-strength goal midway through the third period, his eleventh overall. Barkov assisted with both.

Dallas cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 on Tyler Seguin’s fifth goal of the season midway through the first period and to 3-2 on Lindell’s goal just 92 seconds into the second period.

However, Florida never hesitated. Lundell scored a power play goal with 4:08 left in the first period to make it 3-1. Mikkola assisted Mackie Samoskevich along with AJ Greer, making it 5-2 with 17:29 left.

Dallas scored two goals in the final five minutes, with rookie Mavrik Bourque scoring his first career goal and Jamie Benn scoring against goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 32 saves in the win.

The same two teams will complete the series on Saturday in Tampere.

–Field level media