The Florida Panthers ended a four-game losing streak on home ice with a punishing 6-2 over the Arizona Coyotes at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida’s “second” line of Matthew Tkachuk (2G/1A), Sam Bennett (GWG) and Carter Verhaeghe (3A) combined for seven points and each player finished the laugher with a plus-three rating.
Tkachuk opened the scoring 1:13 in when he turned off the right boards and slung a seeing-eye shot over Karel Vejmelka’s shoulder with the assists going to Verhaeghe and Gustav Forsling.
Sam Reinhart stretched his point streak to 11 games when he completed Florida’s patented bumper play at the 8:44 mark. After playing catch with Brandon Montour, Aleksander Barkov sent the puck to Tkachuk on the goal line and he tapped it out to Reinhart, who notched his 35th of the season with Liam O’Brien serving time in the sin bin.
Forsling would send Verhaeghe and Bennett away on a 2-on-1 break for the Panthers third goal of the frame. Verhaeghe passed to Bennett as the two crossed the blue line and he fired a forehand past Vejmelka just 17 seconds after Reinhart lit the lamp. The assist was the 100th of Forsling’s NHL career.
The onslaught continued in the second with Tkachuk getting his brace at 4:14. Lundell dropped the puck to the son of Keith and he took his time before beating a beleaguered Vejmelka from the right circle. Verhaeghe collected the second helper, which gave him his first-ever three assist game.
Anton Lundell continued his recent offensive uprising when he converted a pretty backhand feed from Reinhart with 1:43 left in the frame after a headman pass from Eetu Luostarinen sent the duo off on a 2-on-1 break.
Jonah Gadjovich notched his first goal as a Panther 2:27 into the third to make it a half dozen. Towering Kevin Stenlund kept the puck in the zone and then spotted Gadjovich behind Arizona’s defense. The big man solved the Coyotes keeper with an impressive forehand-to-backhand finish that ticked in off the edge of Vejmelka’s blocker.
The Desert Dogs finally got on the board at 3:25 when Dylan Guenther whipped in a wrister from the left side after series of well-executed passes. Clayton Keller and Alexander Kerfoot were creditied with the assists on the power-play goal, which came with third period penalty specialist Aaron Ekblad off for tripping.
Logan Cooley would complete the scoring by directing in a backdoor pass from Guenther with 3:02 remaining in the tilt. The second assist on Cooley’s fifth went to Matias Maccelli.
After consecutive home losses to New Jersey, Anaheim, Detroit and Minnesota the Cats came out and blistered the Coyotes with three goals in a 7:08 span to take control of the game. They did a good job of keeping their collective foot on the gas to put the game out of reach early. The victory, coupled with Boston’s 3-2 loss to Carolina, pulled the Panthers within five points of the first place Bruins.
Kibbles & Bits
- Sam Reinhart continues to kill it. During his 11-game point streak he has produced 12 goals and 16 points. Reinhart, who has scored 17 times in the last 15 games, is second in the NHL in goals, first in power-play goals (18) and tied with Connor McDavid for ninth place in scoring with 60 points.
- Aaron Ekblad appeared in his 655th career game, moving him past Stephen Weiss (654) for third place on the club’s all-time games played list.
- Speaking of milestones, bench boss Paul Maurice coached his 1,813th career game, passing Barry Trotz for second all-time in NHL history. Scotty Bowman is the overall leader with 2,141.
- Matthew Tkachuk is really enjoying January. Tkachuk has produced 10 goals and 11 assists in 11 games this month, which still has another week to go.
- Dylan Guenther picked up his third goal and third assist for the Coyotes. In was his first multi-point game of the season. Guenther finished with a game-high six shots.
- Sergei Bobrovsky turned away 31 of 33 shots and collected his 22nd win. Bob lowered his GAA to 2.53 and upped his save percentage to .909.
- For more on Florida’s season-series sweep over Arizona, take Five For Howling.