Brady Tkachuk scores natural hat trick, powers Panthers past Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Brady Tkachuk scored his first three goals of the season with a natural hat trick in the second period, and his brother Matthew had five assists for the Florida Panthers in a 7-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three of Brady’s goals.

“I mean, it's pretty cool,” Brady Tkachuk said. “It's something that, of course, you kind of always dream of happening, and it kind of happened in all the events that we've played together.

“So, for it to happen here, it probably took a little longer than expected, but it's a great feeling. And I'm just more happy with the two points for the team.”

Brady Tkachuk, who also had an assist, scored his fourth career hat trick to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead in a span of 8:03.

He was acquired from the Ottawa Senators on June 23 and recorded his first point with Florida with an assist in a 5-3 loss at the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice wasn’t worried about Brady Tkachuk’s lack of scoring going into the game.

“I've liked his game,” Maurice said. “Our power play struggled for a little bit and then it just needed something to go a certain way for him. There's some chemistry there, you know. He and his brother played together their whole lives as kids, and there's something there for sure.”

Sam Reinhart scored twice and had an assist, Carter Verhaeghe scored twice, and Seth Jones had four assists for the Panthers (3-2-2), who had lost four of five (1-2-2). Akira Schmid made 24 saves.

Kent Johnson scored, and Damon Severson had two assists for the Blue Jackets (2-3-0), who have lost three of four (1-3-0). Cam Talbot allowed six goals on 23 shots before being replaced late in the third period by Jet Greaves, who made four saves.

The Panthers were 4-for-6 on the power play.

“We beat ourselves in St. Louis (5-3 on Saturday). We beat ourselves tonight,” Columbus coach Rick Bowness said. “So, you have to hope, you've got to believe, that that performance tonight will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they're not embarrassed by that, we don't want them on the team. It's as simple as that.

“And a lot of those self-inflicted things, we can fix them. We can. I know it looks bad, but I also believe in what we're doing, and I believe in them, and I believe we can fix the problems.”

Johnson gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 14:11 of the first period.

Brady Tkachuk tied it 1-1 at 2:27 of the second period with a shot from the high slot and put Florida ahead 2-1 at 6:00 on the power play.

He then completed the natural hat trick with a power-play goal at 10:30.

“He’s had a great year so far, so it's nice to see him get rewarded for doing the small things, every game, the little things that stand out,” Jones said.

Verhaeghe extended it to 4-1 at 17:50 on the power play during a 5-minute major by Mathieu Olivier for slashing Uvis Balinskis.

“Too many penalties, not good enough on the kill. They picked us apart,” Olivier said. “I think definitely my penalty didn’t help at all. Overall, a lot of penalties and just kind of got away from us.

“I can sit here and try to rationalize (the penalty) all I want with you. I don't even have an explanation for it. It looked bad. It was bad, and that's on me.”

Reinhart pushed it to 5-1 at 1:20 of the third with a power-play goal by tipping a Matthew Tkachuk shot.

Verhaeghe scored at 3:28 of the third to make 6-1 before Denton Mateychuk cut it to 6-2 at 13:47. Cole Sillinger then made it 6-3 at 14:09.

Reinhart scored into an empty net at 17:43 for the 7-3 final.

NOTES: Brady Tkachuk scored the third-fastest hat trick in Panthers history, behind Noel Acciari (3:59 on Dec. 20, 2019, vs. Dallas Stars) and Steve Reinprecht (5:11 on Oct. 30, 2009, vs. Dallas). … Matthew Tkachuk has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) during a six-game point streak. He tied his NHL career highs of five points and five assists, and set a franchise record for assists in a period with four in the second. … The Tkachuks became the third set of brothers in the past 40 years with four or more points in the same game. The others: Daniel and Henrik Sedin (four times; last: Nov. 21, 2015) and Peter and Anton Stastny (Feb. 21, 1988).