A treat for fans in Tampere: Panthers, Stars send 7 Finns out for opening faceoff

TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — The Florida Panthers and the Dallas Stars didn't make the Finnish fans wait long to see their homeland's players take the ice on Friday.

They started all of them.

Florida had its four Finns — Tampere native Aleksander Barkov, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola and Anton Lundell — all on the ice together to start the game. Dallas did the same, sending out its three Finnish players in Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz and Esa Lindell for the first shift.

And Barkov got the scoring party started early, with an assist on Evan Rodrigues' game-opening goal 28 seconds into the contest — then a goal of his own later in the opening period. It was Barkov's first NHL goal in Finland; he played two other games there with the Panthers in 2018.

Lundell scored later in the first period for Florida.

The Panthers have the most Finnish players in the NHL this season. Dallas' three is tied for second-most in the league.

The teams will play again in Tampere on Saturday. Friday was a “home” game for Dallas, and Florida will count as the home team on Saturday.

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