Panthers rout Predators for sixth straight victory
Carter Verhaeghe and Aleksander Barkov produced three points apiece and red-hot Sam Reinhart scored again as the host Florida Panthers won their sixth straight game, defeating the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Verhaeghe scored two goals and dished one assist. Barkov pocketed three assists.
Reinhart has scored 11 goals this season, with at least one tally in five straight games. Reinhart started the day in a five-way tie for the NHL goal-scoring lead.
The Panthers are 9-0-0 this season when Reinhart scores. In his past five games, Reinhart has six goals and three assists.
Besides Verhaeghe and Reinhart, the Panthers got goals from Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues and Tomas Nosek.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves to earn the win. He has won four straight starts.
For Nashville, Steven Stamkos and Juuso Parssinen scored, and Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves.
This was Florida's first game since playing in Finland on Saturday. Nashville was playing its second game in two nights after losing in Washington on Wednesday.
Florida led 2-0 after the first period and 5-1 after the second. In those first 40 minutes, the Panthers had 51 shot attempts and 25 shots on goal. Nashville had 27 shot attempts and 11 shots on goal.
The Panthers opened the scoring with just 3:33 expired on Reinhart's wraparound goal. Barkov had the primary assist.
Florida was on the rush less than two minutes later when Tkachuk scored to make it 2-0.
The Panthers struck again just 1:56 into the second as Rodrigues skated from behind Nashville's net, got in position and then fired.
Florida made it 4-0 with a power-play goal. Verhaeghe positioned himself in front of Wedgewood before taking a great pass from Uvis Balinskis. Verhaeghe then tiptoed around Wedgewood before beating him with a backhander.
Nashville finally got on the board with 6:08 left in the second as Stamkos, from the left circle, roofed a puck over Bobrovsky.
But Verhaeghe's second goal of the night - this one with 28 seconds left in the second - gave Florida a 5-1 lead. That goal came on a two-on-one rush as Barkov did the heavy lifting with a perfect pass to Verhaeghe, who lifted the puck over Wedgewood's blocker.
With the rout on, the Panthers put their fourth line on for a power play, and that resulted in a goal by Nosek as the puck went in off his skates.
