Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals and added an assist and Aleksander Barkov had three helpers as the Florida Panthers returned to action with a convincing 6-2 win over the Nashville Predators at Amerant Bank Arena.
Playing for the first time since returning from Finland, the Panthers wasted little time (3:33) getting on the scoreboard. After Niko Mikkola repelled a Nashville entry, he got the puck to Barkov, who passed to Sam Reinhart at center ice. Reinhart worked his way past Brady Skjei and rounded the net to beat Scott Wedgewood on the wraparound.
Matthew Tkachuk would double the lead 1:41 later, taking a crisp outlet pass from Verhaeghe and then finishing from in-close when his return pass in front on a 2-on-1 situation was broken up. The secondary assist on the goal went to Uvis Balinskis, who bounced the puck off the boards to Verhaeghe after Jonathan Marchessault’s blasted a shot wide.
The Panthers would go up by three 1:56 into the second when Evan Rodrigues scored two seconds after Luke Schenn’s hooking minor expired. Sam Bennett sped up the ice on the last rush of the power play before dishing off to Anton Lundell, who gave it back to Bennett. Bennett passed to Rodrigues, who curled out from below the goal line to whip a top-shelf wrister past Wedgewood. That’s three games in a row with a goal for Rodrigues.
Verhaghe notched his first of the night at 11:18 with the Cats on the power play. After Barkov’s pass into the slot was denied, the puck came to Balinskis and he got the puck down low to Verhaeghe, who was able to fend off Alexandre Carrier and score on the backhand.
Steven Stamkos would get his obligatory power-play goal against the Panthers to get the Predators on the board 2:34 later. Standing all alone in the left circle, Stamkos belted a one-timer by Sergei Bobrovsky after taking a pass from Roman Josi. Filip Forsberg drew the second assist on Stamkos’ third of the season.
Florida added another goal with 28 seconds left in the frame, with Verhaeghe again doing the honors. Tkachuk would make a smart play to intercept a pass along the boards before head-manning to Verhaeghe, who tapped the puck over to Barkov. Verhaeghe drove towards the net and then wristed Barkov’s sweet backhand pass over Wedgewood.
Tomas Nosek scored his first goal as a Panther, and the first power-play of his NHL career, 11:23 into the third. After a trio of Cats combined to force a turnover in the right corner, rookie Mackie Samoskevich passed out to Nate Schmidt, who quickly centered to Nosek and the puck found its way over the goal line after hitting both of Nosek’s skates.
Juuso Parssinen completed the scoring by tipping in Marc Del Gaizo’s shot from the point after Luke Evangelista sent the puck back to the defenseman 28 seconds after Verhaeghe’s goal.
After taking four days off to recover from its overseas trip, the Panthers showed up in their personalized robes and showed little to no signs of rust, cruising to an easy win over the Predators, who played the previous night in Washington. The Cats have now won six straight and scored 30 goals during the streak.
Claws & Fangs
- After dealing with some nasty puck luck to start the campaign, First Star Carter Verhaeghe finally came up with his first multigoal of the season. Verhaeghe’s three-point night puts him at 11 points in 14 games.
- Matthew Tkachuk’s goal gave him four in his last five games. He has also contributed three assists over that span.
- Sam Reinhart’s game-opening goal was his 11th of the season. That ties him with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the league-lead.
- In addition to scoring one of his new team’s two goals, Steven Stamkos finished with a game-high five shots for the Predators.
- Thanks to a great effort from his teammates, Sergei Bobrovsky only had to face 18 shots on goal, with just eight of those coming at 5-on-5.
- Next up: The Panthers will host the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.