Alex Wennberg scored three goals as the Florida Panthers extended their longest winning streak of the season to five games and plowed by the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 on Saturday night at BB&T Center. Both clubs will face each other again in Sunrise tomorrow. Matt Kiersted made his NHL debut with Florida.
Jonathan Huberdeau passed Robert Svehla for third all-time in Panthers franchise history as he played in his 574th game. Sergei Bobrovsky became the third Russian goalie to reach the 500th NHL game mark.
After no scoring in the first, Florida(25-9-4) struck at 3:57 of the second period. Aleksander Barkov, who had missed the last six games due to an injury, had the puck in the low right circle. He connected a cross-ice pass on a backdoor play to MacKenzie Weegar in the left circle and he snapped a shot by Elvis Merzlikins for his third goal this year. Weeger got his first point in eight contests while Verhaeghe picked up an assist for his ninth point in the last five games.
The Panthers increased their lead to 2-0 at the 4:49 mark. Frank Vatrano angled a pass to his right from the top of the zone. Wennberg powered a slap shot from the right circle for his ninth goal this season. Patric Hornqvist returned from an injury after missing four games and got a secondary assist on the play.
The Cats make it a three-goal margin at 8:47. Weegar made a diagonal pass from theright side of the neutral zone to Wennberg and he blasted a slap shot for his second tally of the contest. Joonas Korpisalo replaced Merzlikins in net following the end of the second period.
Columbus(14-17-8) broke the shutout at the 2:46 mark of the third period and were down 3-1. Alexandre Texier passed the puck from the high slot to Michael Del Zotto at the right-circle dot. His slap shot was saved by Bobrovsky, however Oliver Bjorkstrand scored on a forehand shot from the low slot for his 14th goal of the season. It was his second goal in the past three games.
Florida would get a goal with 9:06 left in the third for a 4-1 lead. Owen Tippett came in on breakaway and his forehand shot was stopped. Frank Vatrano followed up with a wrist shot by Korpisalo for his 12th goal this season.
The Blue Jackets cut it to 4-2 with 1:45 to go. Zach Werenski snapped a shot from the slot area for his sixth goal on assists from Riley Nash and Seth Jones. Werenski expanded his point streak up to three games.
The Panthers added an empty-net goal with 6.9 seconds remaining in the contest. Wennberg got his first career hat trick as he fired a high wrist shot from his own left circle into the cage. It was his 11th goal of the campaign.
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