SUNRISE, Fla. — Defenseman Niko Mikkola logged the first multi-goal game of his career as the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Monday to begin a three-game homestand at Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida improves to 12-5-1 on the season. The Oilers fall to 5-11-1.

Both of Mikkola’s goals tied the game.

In the first period, he took a drop pass from Kevin Stenlund and fired a wrist shot from the left circle past Edmonton goaltender Calvin Pickard to tie the game at 2-2 with 4:07 left in the opening period.

In the second, with the game at 4-on-4 following penalties to Edmonton’s Zach Hyman and Florida’s Sam Bennett, Mikkola rushed into the offensive zone from the left side and his pass attempt toward Evan Rodrigues went in the net to even the game at 3-3.

Mikkola now has a career-high four goals on the season.

Stenlund scored the game winner with 6:18 left in the second period and had three points. Carter Verhaeghe opened scoring for Florida with a first-period power-play goal. Sam Bennett added an empty-net goal with 42.6 seconds left.

Connor McDavid scored twice for Edmonton — once on a penalty shot — and Evander Kane scored the Oilers’ other goal.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 of 31 shots that came his way to improve to 9-5-1 on the season, including 6-1-0 in November.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

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