Punchless power play has been concern all season for CBJ

The Florida Panthers haven't done much offensively during their best stretch of the season. Roberto Luongo has done his best to make that a moot point.

With a chance to match their longest road win streak in seven years, the Panthers would be hard pressed not to start Luongo in the second of this back to back Friday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Since losing three straight appearances that included a season high-tying five goals allowed in an overtime loss to the New York Rangers, Luongo has picked up his play considerably. He's led Florida (12-9-4) to four consecutive wins, including a 32-save performance in Thursday's 2-1 victory at Nashville.

The Panthers, who have won the first three on this five-game trip, seek five consecutive victories away from home for the first time since Nov. 30-Dec. 12, 2008.

"You want to get on a bit of a roll and get some points," Luongo told the team's official website. "I think, especially this road trip, we've had some tough tests and we've played some good hockey as a team. We've won some gritty road games. That's the type of hockey when we play here, and that's the way we win."

The 16-year veteran has a .957 save percentage during his four-game run. If that wasn't motivation enough to start him on back-to-back days, he's also 6-1-2 with a 1.92 goals-against average in his last nine starts against the Blue Jackets.

Whether Luongo or Al Montoya gets the nod in net, they likely won't have much margin for error.

The Panthers have scored nine non-shootout goals during their win streak, but did end a three-game stretch without a power-play tally Thursday when Jonathan Huberdeau connected in the second period. It was a rare road man-advantage goal for Florida, which is 4 for 37 (10.8 percent) in those situations.

Still trying to dig out from a season-opening eight-game losing streak, Columbus (10-16-0) has been much better since with a 10-8-0 record. The Blue Jackets were really making strides with wins in six of eight games before losses at St. Louis and Montreal this week.

They scored a combined two goals in those defeats, were outshot 58-47, allowed two power-play goals and failed to convert on either of their opportunities.

A punchless power play has been a concern all season, and that unit is 0 for 19 over the past eight games after a 5-for-11 stretch last month.

"Our power play has gone dry, and we spent a number of minutes today working on that," coach John Tortorella told the team's official website after practice Thursday. "We need to get into a more shooting mentality on our power play."

Tortorella's team has turned around its fortunes at home, winning four of five after six consecutive losses there.

Sergei Bobrovsky has been in net for each of those games, posting a 1.59 GAA and one shutout. He's been just as good lately against the Panthers with wins in seven consecutive starts while compiling a 1.95 GAA.

Although Columbus plays at Philadelphia on Saturday, Bobrovsky has started on back-to-back days several times this season and is expected to get the nod.

The Blue Jackets had won 10 straight in this series before a 3-2 road loss Jan. 29. Bobrovsky got that night off as Florida notched its first win over Columbus since Nov. 21, 2007.

Panthers leading scorer Jaromir Jagr's next goal will be the 731st of his career, tying him with Marcel Dionne for fourth all-time.