Panthers Outduel Avalanche

     Matthew Tkachuk scored his 200th career goal and Sam Reinhart ended up with a hat trick as the Florida Panthers rolled by the Colorado Avalanche 8-4 at Ball Arena on Saturday. The Panthers extended their winning streak up to seven games. The Cats finish their four-game road swing on Tuesday in St. Louis. The Avalanche had their seven-game point streak snapped. 

     Florida(25-12-2) ripped out to a 3-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the contest. They got one goal from Carter Verhaeghe and two goals from Reinhart. 

     Colorado(25-12-3) shockingly evened it up 3-3 in the first 4:35 of the second period. Cale Makar, Josh Manson and Valeri Nichushkin all scored for the Avs. Oliver Ekman-Larsson gave the Cats a 4-3 lead at the 8:50 mark of the second on his eighth goal in 2023-24. 

     In the third period, the Avalanche tied it 4-4 at 3:31. Jonathan Drouin was able to get his ninth tally of the campaign. 

     The Panthers answered back on the power play just over two minutes later at 5:59 and reclaimed the lead 5-4. Reinhart picked up the hat trick with his third goal of the game and 28th goal of the season on a wrist shot. It was Reinhart's seventh career NHL hat trick and his 11th goal in the last nine games.  

     The rest of the third period would belong to Florida as they added to their lead with three more goals. Kevin Stenlund placed in his seventh goal at 8:59, Tkachuk reached the 200-goal mark on a wrist shot with 3:43 to go and Verhaeghe collected his second tally of the contest on a backhand shot into an empty-net goal with 3:06 left for a 8-4 advantage. 

     Tkachuk finished with a four-point game as he compiled one goal along with three assists. Aleksander Barkov got on the scoresheet with four assists.