Carter Verhaeghe poured in three goals and added an assist to lift the Florida Panthers to a 6-3 win over the New York Islanders in a back-and-forth affair at Amerant Bank Arena.
Verhaeghe scored twice in the first period as the Cats dominated the opening frame, out-shooting the Islanders 14-5.
After scoring the final goal in Saturday’s romp over Chicago, Verhagehe lit the lamp 39 seconds in, beating Jakub Skarek on the backhand after taking a centering pass in front from Sam Reinhart after Aleksander Barkov came up with a loose puck near the right point.
Verhaeghe notched another at the 12:52 mark, this time potting the juicy rebound of Gustav Forsling’s shot after the defenseman stole the puck from Kyle Palmieri and carried over the line before forcing Skarek to make a pad save.
The Islanders would flip the script for most of the second and run off three-straight goals to claim the lead.
Kyle MacLean put in the rebound of Tony DeAngelo’s shot from the right point to get the visitors on the board at 3:10. Dennis Cholowski drew the second assist on MacLean’s first goal since December 8.
With time running out on Niko Mikkola holding minor, the Islanders discombobulated power play clicked at the halfway point when J.P. Pageau exchanged passes with Cholowski, and then went to the net to finish off a rebound after Casey Cizikas took a crack it.
Skarek made a good play to foil Anton Lundell’s crossing attempt for Evan Rodrigues that led to a breakaway for Marc Gatcomb as he came out of the penalty box. Knight denied the one-on-one chance, but Gatcomb was able deflect in Adam Pelech’s wild shot from the left point after Maxim Tsyplakov collected the rebound and fed the defenseman at 14:51.
The Panthers stopped the bleeding 3:01 later thanks to a heavy shift from the third line. Eetu Luostarinen won the puck in the corner and sent a no-look backhand pass to Lundell in the slot. Skarek came up with the save, however, the rebound came right to Rodrigues, who backhanded it in the yawning net to tie the tilt at threes.
Reinhart would put the Cats back on top with 51 ticks remaining in the period. Barkov sprung Reinhart through the neutral zone with speed and he worked a beautiful give-and-go with Forsling, who delivered a perfect return pass that Reinhart directed in from the top of the crease for his 31st goal.
Verhaeghe would complete his hat trick 10:41 into the third with Tsyplakov off for holding. After working the puck around the boards with a series of quick passes, Matthew Tkachuk crossed from right to left and Verhaeghe smacked a one-timer past Skarek from the face-off dot. Barkov collected the secondary helper on Verhaeghe’s 15th of the season.
Aaron Ekblad and Verhaeghe would combine to set up Tkachuk’s empty-netter, which completed the scoring with 1:39 left on the clock.
Props to the Panthers for shaking off the poor 15-minutes of hockey the played in the second period to end New York’s seven-game winning streak. After Reinhart gave them the lead back, they took advantage of the one power-play chance they got in the third to net the insurance goal, and Knight came up big over the final twenty, finishing the period with 13 saves. Florida’s perfect homestand has them three points up on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who hold two games in hand. The Cats will hit the road for games in Washington, D.C. and St. Louis this week.
Flotsam & Jetsam
- First Star Carter Verhaeghe dropped his fourth career hat trick on the Islanders. After his season-high four-point performance, he is up to 15 goals and 41 points on the season.
- Sam Reinhart’s 31st goal has him tied with Mark Scheifele for second-most in the league behind Leon Draisaitl, who has 36. Reinhart has produced six points over the last three games.
- Jakub Skarek finished with 27 saves on 32 shots faced in his NHL debut. Skarek has a 5-11-1 record and 3.22 GAA for the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL.
- Aleksander Barkov assisted on three goals to earn Second Star honors. Barkov has racked up eight points in his last five games.
- Spencer Knight (31 saves) wobbled a bit in the middle frame, but a strong third period and some goal support from his teammates propelled the 23-year-old to his tenth win of the season.
StatCard
