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Carter Verhaeghe, Tkachuk Brothers Power Panthers Past Winnipeg
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- Carter Verhaeghe, Tkachuk Brothers Power Panthers Past Winnipeg
The Florida Panthers put an exclamation point on their four-game road trip thanks to a big win on Tuesday night.
Florida jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the first period and never looked back, wrapping up their roadie with a resounding 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.
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A pair of early penalties by the Jets helped propel Florida to a quick multi-goal lead.
First, it was Carter Verhaeghe on the power play, jumping on a loose puck after two quick attempts at the net by Brady Tkachuk and Seth Jones, both of whom ended up with assists on the game's opening goal.
Just 75 seconds later, Niko Mikkola's long wrist shot deflected off Jets' defenseman Mario Ferraro's stick and into the net, quickly doubling Florida's lead.
They weren't done there.
A second power play came for the Panthers just over a minute later when Winnipeg was called for too many men, and once again it would be Verhaeghe who capitalized.
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Coming down with the puck from the point, Verhaeghe sent the puck down to Brady for a quick back-and-forth, clearing up room to walk into a wrist shot that beat Clay Stevenson to give Florida a commanding 3-0 lead.
Jones and Matthew Tkachuk continued their respective hot starts to the season as Jones assisted on all three goals and Tkachuk helped on two.
The game's next two goals both came with Florida on the power play about midway through the second period.
First, Adam Lowry scored after catching Akira Schmid out of the net, a goal that was not called initially on the ice, but later deemed true after a video review showed the puck completely crossing the line despite a valiant effort by Schmid to get back in the net.
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Fortunately for the Panthers, they remained on the power play and quickly regained their three goal advantage.
A pretty passing play saw the puck go from Matthew Tkachuk to younger brother Brady to Sam Reinhart in the slot in the blink of an eye, and Reinhart knew what to do from there.
His sixth goal of the season put Florida ahead 4-1, a lead they took into the final frame.
The Tkachuk brothers teamed up for an even strength goal with just under eight minutes to go, as Brady reached out and with one hand on his stick, deflected a pass from Matthew over Stevenson's glove to give the Cats a commanding 5-1 lead.
For Matthew, his four-assist evening gave him 20 points in 13 games so far this year, while Brady is now up to 15 points over his past eight games after logging a goal and two helpers on Tuesday.
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Next up for Florida will be three straight games at home, starting on Friday night with a rematch against Winnipeg.
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Photo caption: Oct 27, 2026; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN;FloridaPantherscenter Carter Verhaeghe (23) celebrates a goal against the Winnipeg Jets withFloridaPantherscenter Sam Reinhart (13) in the first period at Canada Life Centre. (James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images)
