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SUNRISE, Fla. – A thousand reasons to smile.

On the same night defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was honored for skating in his 1,000th NHL game, the Florida Panthers shut down the New York Islanders in a 6-3 win at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday.

Their third straight win, the Panthers remain atop the Atlantic Division at 32-19-3.

“I feel like our game has been right the last couple of weeks,” said Kulikov. “Sometimes we didn’t get the result that we wanted, but we’ve been playing good.”

The swag got turned on early.

Scoring in his second straight game, Carter Verhaeghe beat rookie goaltender Jakub Skarek with a backhand 39 seconds into the game to put the Panthers up 1-0.

Carter Verhaeghe puts the Panthers up 1-0 less than a minute into the game.

Continuing an impressive streak of shutdown defense, the Panthers held the Islanders to zero shots on goal for the first 10:59 minutes of the period.

Finding the back of the net yet again in the first period, Verhaeghe followed up on a shot from Gustav Forsling and blasted in a rebound to extend Florida’s lead to 2-0 at 12:52.

Carter Verhaeghe doubles the lead for the Panthers with his second goal of the first period.

Another good start, the Panthers have led 37-9 in shots on goal over their last two first periods.

“We like playing with a lead and coming into games when we’re ready to play from the start is when we’re at our best,” said Verhaeghe on the hot starts. “It’s kind of a mindset thing that we like to have and we did it again tonight.”

Cutting Florida’s lead in half in the second period, with net front traffic, Kyle MacLean put in a loose puck at 3:10 to make it 2-1.

Adding another for the Islanders, with five seconds remaining on the power play, Jean-Gabriel Pageau evened the score at 2-2 at 10:00.

Scoring a third unanswered goal at 14:51, Marc Gatcomb tipped in a shot from the blue line from Adam Pelech to put New York ahead 3-2.

Stopping the momentum of the Islanders and lighting the lamp for the second straight game, Evan Rodrigues got a backhand past a sprawling Skarek to tie the game at 3-3 at 17:52.

Evan Rodrigues pulls the Panthers even with a backhand goal in the second period.

“They got a little momentum there in the second period, but I think we took it right back and played a solid third,” said Forsling.

Taking back momentum with 50.2 seconds left in the period, Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling executed a textbook give-and-go, as Reinhart pushed the Panthers ahead 4-3.

With the goal, Reinhart tied Pavel Bure for fifth most goals in franchise history with 152.

Speaking of scoring lots of goals, Verhaeghe capped off the hat trick in the third period at 10:41 on the power play to give Florida a 5-3 lead.

Carter Verhaeghe scores on the power play to send hats flying to the ice.

“We felt his game is trending in the right way,” said head coach Paul Maurice on Verhaeghe’s play as of late. “He’s got it cooking now.”

Sealing the deal, Matthew Tkachuk ripped in an empty netter at 18:21 to give the Panthers the 6-3 win and their third straight win.

“Playing at home in front of our fans, get a couple of wins is definitely huge for our team,” said Verhaeghe. “We’re going to go into Washington and St. Louis and just try to play our game.”

THEY SAID IT

“Good for him. He’s been shooting a lot of pucks lately and happy to see it go in for him.” – Gustav Forsling on Carter Verhaeghe’s hat trick

“It was great to receive so many congratulations from former teammates and the recognition, it was really great to hear.” – Dmitry Kulikov on his 1,000th game ceremony

CATS STATS

- Spencer Knight made 31 saves in the win

- The Panthers had a 15-3 scoring chances advantage in the first period

- Matthew Tkachuk had a team high six shots

- Five Panthers recorded two or more points

- Aaron Ekblad blocked three shots

WHAT’S NEXT?

Back on the road we go.

The Panthers will start their two-game road trip against the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

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