Panthers Breeze By Blackhawks

     The Florida Panthers finished a four-game road trip as they defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 at United Center on Sunday night. The Cats, who have won four of their last five games, now have the holiday break and will play at home on Friday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
     In the first period, Chicago(13-20-6) moved ahead 1-0 at 6:37. Connor Murphy, son of former Panthers defenseman Gord Murphy, got his first goal of the year on assists from Dylan Strome and Brendan Perllni.
     Florida(15-14-6) evened it with 5:39 left in the first. Jayce Hawryluk scored his first NHL goal with Mark Pysyk and  Bogdan Kiselevich credited with assists.
     The Panthers took a 2-1 lead at the 2:35 mark of the second period. Michael Matheson sent a long lead pass from his own defensive zone to Hawryluk at the Hawks blue line. He skated in on a breakaway and scored on a forehand shot by Cam Ward.
     The Blackhawks converted on a power play at 4:56. Alex DeBrincat centered the puck from the low left circle. It deflected off the right skate of Strome along with the left skate of Matheson and off the right post. DeBrincat charged in and put the puck in from the left of the blue paint past James Reimer.
     The Cats scored on a power-play goal with 3:11 to go in the period. MacKenzie Weegar fed the puck from the right point to Mike Hoffman on the right wing. He snapped a shot from the top right circle through traffic for his 17th goal of the season.
     The Panthers made it a two-goal gap 31 seconds later. Weegar intercepted a pass at center ice, brought it to the top of the Blackhawks zone and fired a wrist shot. Ward made the stick save, but Jared McCann roofed in the rebound from the right of the crease.
     The third period came around and Florida extended their lead to 5-2 just 59 seconds in. Denis Malgin put in his third tally of the year on an assist from McCann.
     The Hawks tried to make a comeback like they did in their victory over the Panthers back on November 24. Strome collected his third point in the contest with a goal at 9:35 on assists from Patrick Kane and Murphy.
     Chicago pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 2:21 to go. Alekander Barkov banked the puck off the left-wing wall in the neutral zone and Frank Vatrano scored into an empty net with 1:01 left.