SUNRISE, Fla. _ The Florida Panthers postgame celebration after victories is equal parts elaborate and simple. In each of the Panthers' 31 victories, including Friday night's 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres, the team has followed a familiar script.
And during the most recent five-game winning streak, the routine has become commonplace.
Vincent Trocheck is the team DJ, an honor he said former player Shawn Thornton bestowed upon him simply by asking him to play music. Lately, Trocheck has spun Matoma's "Old Thing Back" as the victory anthem, which fills the dressing room through a chorus of his teammates.
They shout two words: "Yeah baby." Keith Yandle often is louder than the rest of the Panthers, but he said the phrase's origin traces its way back to Jonathan Huberdeau. There's no meaning behind it, just something to yell after goals and wins and playoff pushes.
"It just means that we're all idiots," Connor Brickley once said.
The music and the cheers are the dressing to the rugby centerpiece. The team presents the player of the game with a New Zealand All Blacks jersey and a rugby ball _ inspired by the book "Legacy," which coach Bob Boughner installed as the team's compass in the preseason. Different players have taken different strategies to the customary spike that follows the jersey presentation.
Denis Malgin rolled on the dressing room floor, as if to score a try in rugby. Aleksander Barkov's spikes skim off the floor. Some bounce of the floor, then the ceiling.
The scene has unfolded regularly in the last month. The five-game winning streak ties a season-long streak for the Panthers and gives them 12 wins in the 15 games since the All-Star break.
The streak has pushed the Panthers from the edge of a playoff race to squarely in the thick of it. Florida entered Friday night three points behind Columbus for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers have played three fewer games than the Blue Jackets.
The win over Buffalo kept the Panthers perfect on their current six-game homestand, which concludes on Sunday afternoon against Philadelphia. This one was the only one that wasn't a nail-biter.
The first four games _ wins over Washington, Pittsburgh, Toronto and New Jersey _ each were decided in the last five minutes of the game. Two were won in the third period's last two minutes. One dipped into overtime. Friday night allowed them to breathe after carrying a three-goal lead into the third period.
Mike Matheson opened the scoring 1:25 into the game by netting his ninth goal of the season, but just his first at home. After Jared McCann won a faceoff, Matheson drifted into the slot and whipped a wrist shot past Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner.
Matheson wasn't the only Panthers defenseman to score on Friday night, and he wasn't the only one to do so immediately after a faceoff win. After Barkov won an offensive zone draw, Yandle fired a cross-ice pass to Aaron Ekblad. At the dot to Lehner's left, Ekblad released a shot that beat Lehner to his right. It was Ekblad's 13th goal of the season and 50th of his career.
Barkov, who scored two goals in a win over New Jersey on Thursday night, potted another on Friday night. After splitting the Buffalo defense, Barkov fought off a check from Justin Falk and roofed a backhanded shot in the second period. Barkov's 24th goal tied him with Trocheck for the team lead.
Colton Sceviour added an insurance goal halfway through the second period. For Buffalo, Sam Reinhart scored the only goal.
Florida's winning streak continues an unlikely resurgence. The Panthers were the team that struggled to string together three wins in the first three months of the season. In the first 38 games of the season, Florida had one winning streak of longer than three games (a five-game stretch at the end of December).
In the last 15 games, Florida has three separate winning streaks of at least three games.
