Matthew Tkachuk scored the sixth hat trick of his career to lead the Florida Panthers to a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red WIngs at Little Casars Arena, ending a four-game losing streak.
Tkachuk opened the scoring at 11:06 of the first period by one-timing a centering pass from Carter Verhaeghe past John Gibson.
The Red Wings evened it up midway through the second when Alex DeBrincat batted the puck out of the air and into the net after Patrick Kane’s initial shot came off the back glass. Dylan Larkin was credited with the secondary assist on the 5-on-3 goal.
Florida would regain the lead on the power play 35 ticks into the final frame. Detroit had a couple chances to clear, but Brad Marchand stick got in the way both times. Sam Reinhart slapped the loose puck towards the goal and Tkachul deflected it home for his second of the night.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who stayed put after dealing with trade rumors all week, would make 11 of his 28 saves in the third period and Tkachuk sealed the deal with an empty-netter from long range at 18:08 to give the needy Cats their first win of the month of March.
Florida improved to 12-3 when scoring first on the road this season to pull back within eight points of the Boston Bruins with 19 games remaining on the schedule. The two teams will go back, jack, and do it again on Tuesday night in Sunrise.
The Five Hole
- Notching his fourth hatty as a Panther, Matthew Tkachuk tied Aleksander Barkov and Olli Jokinen for third-most in franchise history. Tkachuk has racked up nine points in his last six games.
- Carter Verhaeghe’s helper on Tkachuk’s first goal ended a four-game run without a point. Verhaeghe is up to 44 points on the season.
- Sergei Bobrovsky collected his 23rd win of the campaign. Bobrovsky is 2-2 since the NHL resumed play after the break for the Olympics.
- Tomas Nosek finished with a game-high five hits and Niko Mikkola was right behind him with four.
- Mikkola, Gus Forsling and Aaron Ekblad each blocked three shots in the game.
Stat Card
