Anton Lundell has been great defensively for Panthers. Is offense starting to come, too?

Anton Lundell didn’t want to take too much credit for the results. The Florida Panthers’ third-line center posted his first multi-goal game of the season on Wednesday in Florida’s 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, but even he was quick to admit that “some luck” was involved.

The first goal came on a deflection of a Matthew Tkachuk point shot in the second period. The second came when he fired a wrist shot from the left circle in the third period that got blocked, then lost by virtually everyone on the ice before going past Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry.

“We’ll take it,” Lundell said.

Especially with how his season has gone.

Lundell is in the midst of a contract year, with the 22-year-old set to become a restricted free agent after the season ends.

He has been stellar defensively, with Florida giving up just 16 goals when he’s on the ice during five-on-five play, but the offensive numbers just haven’t been there. Lundell enters Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with just seven goals — three of which came in the past two games — and 15 assists through 50 games played.

The Panthers are understandably getting the bulk of their offensive production at five-on-five play from their top two lines centered by Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett.

But coach Paul Maurice knows that once the playoffs arrive, a well-balanced attack is needed.

That’s where Lundell and his line needs to come into play.

“That’s all the human part of developing in the NHL,” Maurice said. “You’re sitting in the three-hole and have some really good centers ahead of you. That part he understands. … What we need is Lundell’s line to do both — be as good as they can be defensively and to put some [offensive] numbers up.”

Maurice knows it’s possible. He looks back to Game 2 of the Panthers’ second-round playoff matchup last season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Florida trailed 2-0 about five minutes into the game before Lundell scored on a wrist shot from up close midway through the frame. The Panthers went on to win that game 3-2.

“You could just feel that building get quiet. You could feel the game coming,” Maurice said. “They need those goals — the important ones. … We don’t need Lundell’s line to lead the team in scoring. We need them to score at the right time.”

Maurice has also trusted Lundell to handle bigger responsibilities this season. On two separate occasions when Barkov missed games, it was Lundell who Maurice tabbed to take over top-line duties. More often than not, Lundell has lived up to the task when he understands more is expected from him.

Now, it’s a matter of Lundell putting it all together on a more consistent basis.

“At such a young age, he is such a complete player,” Barkov said in late November after returning from the first of those two stints of missed playing time. “He wants to learn. He’s working on his game.”