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Hat Tricks For Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett Fuel Panthers Dominant Victory Over Seattle
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- Hat Tricks For Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett Fuel Panthers Dominant Victory Over Seattle
It's been a pretty solid few days for the Florida Panthers.
Florida has now won three straight games during the young season, extending the streak thanks to Saturday's dominant 8-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken.
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It didn't take long for the Panthers to get things started on the right skate.
Just 65 seconds into the game, Sam Bennett jumped on a Matthew Takchuk rebound, swatting the puck out of midair and into the Kraken net to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Bennett and the Cats, they didn't stay ahead for very long.
Former fourth overall draft pick Sane Wright got his stick on a shot by Berkly Catton, getting just enough of the puck to change its direction and get it past Jacob Markstrom to knot the score at one at the 4:51 mark.
That's how the score would remain for the majority of the period, with both goaltenders coming up with some big saves.
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With just over two minutes left until the first intermission, Carter Verhaeghe one-timed a puck from the left faceoff circle over Joey Daccord's glove to give the Cats a 2-1 lead, but he wasn't done there.
Florida went on the power play less than a minute later thanks to Ryker Evans shooting the puck over the glass, and Verhaeghe found the back of the net again, this time off a nice feed from Brady Tkachuk, sending Florida into the break with a 3-1 advantage.
Keeping the good times rolling, Verhaeghe completed the natural hat trick by finishing off a pass from Niko Mikkola to extend Florida's lead to 4-1.
There was some history that came with the goal, as Florida became the first team in NHL history to have players log natural hat tricks in three consecutive games.
Not too shabby, eh?
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Just 40 seconds after that, Niko Mikkola's long shot found its way over Daccord's blocker to extend Florida's lead to 5-1, and then Bennett gave the Cats a sixth goal by finishing off a 2-on-1 with Brady.
After a Freddy Gaudreau goal late in the second brought Seattle to within 6-2, Sam Reinhart scored on the power play to hit the extra point for Florida, one-timing a quick feed by Matthew Takchuk past Daccord.
Sure, the Kraken added a third goal just under four minutes into the period, but the bigger news of the final frame was Bennett becoming the second Panthers player DURING THIS GAME to pick up a hat trick.
Bennett's third goal of the night was Florida's eighth, marking the first time in Panthers history that two players recorded three goals in the same game.
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The goal was also the 400th point of Benntt's career.
Florida's record has now improved to 5-2-2 on the young season. They'll head back out on the road this week for a four-game trip, starting with a back-to-back Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa and Pittsburgh.
Getting back to Florida's scoring for a moment, the game saw a couple point streaks extended by the Tkachuk brothers.
Matthew Tkachuk finished the night with three assists, extending his point streak to eight games, racking up three goals and 14 points during the run.
As for Brady, his point streak is now at four games, logging six goals and 10 points over that span after picking up a pair of helpers on Saturday.
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The timing couldn't be better as Brady and the Panthers' next game is against his former team, the Ottawa Senators.
We'll see if they can keep the good times rolling when they travel north of the border.
Stay tuned.
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Photo caption: May 9, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center CarterVerhaeghe(23) celebrates with center SamBennett(9) and defenseman Gustav Forsling (42) after scoring against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period in game three of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
