RECAP: Panthers net seven goals in win over Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS – That was fun.

Closing out the road trip on a high note, the Florida Panthers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-3 at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

With the win, Panthers now own a 3-2-2 record.

“It's a big game for us,” head coach Paul Maurice said after the win. “You lose two in a row, that hurts. You’re on a back-to-back. They've been a very strong starting team, Columbus, so very important win.”

Starting things off for the Blue Jackets, and scoring the lone goal of the period, Kent Johnson broke the ice at 14:11.

In the period, the Panthers outshot the Blue Jackets 10-8.

Evening the score at 1-1 in the second period, Brady Tkachuk found the back of the net on a pass from Matthew Tkachuk at 2:27.

With the assist, Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak against the Blue Jackets to 15.

Putting the Panthers ahead 2-1 less than four minutes later, Brady Tkachuk got his second of the game on a feed from Matthew Tkachuk and Seth Jones on the power play.

Extending the lead on the power play to 3-1, Brady Tkachuk completed the hat trick at 10:30.

Per NHL Stats, Brady Tkachuk (8:03) scored the third-fastest three goals by a Panthers skater, behind Noel Acciari (3:59) and Steve Reinprecht (5:11).

“It's nice to see him get rewarded for doing the small things every game, the little things, and staying with it,” Jones said of Brady Tkachuk.

Just over halfway through the period, Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier received a five-minute major and game misconduct for a low slash on Uvis Balinskis.

Converting on the power play at 17:50, Carter Verhaeghe buried a pass from Brady Tkachuk to make it 4-1.

Staying hot on the power play, Sam Reinhart made it 5-1 just 1:20 into the period on a deflection.

Adding to the lead, Verhaeghe found the back of the net for the second time at 3:28, to make it 6-1.

“Lars (Eller) made a great play,” Verhaeghe said of the goal. “I was just trying to support him and then I just took it across, Reino (Reinhart) was in the net, a good screen, and just tried to get it through, and it went in.”

Getting two back for the Blue Jackets, Denton Mateychuk (13:47) and Cole Sillinger (14:09) scored 22 seconds apart to bring the score to 6-3.

Icing the game, Reinhart netted his second of the game with an empty netter at 17:43, to give the Panthers a 7-3 win.

“We got some big ones at home before we get back on the road again,” said Brady Tkachuk. “For us, just continue to play fast, continue to play to our identity and be hard to play against.”

THEY SAID IT

“He's been excellent all year. He's played some big minutes for our team.” – Brady Tkachuk on Seth Jones

"He was great tonight. He was a wall in there for us, especially when he needed those big saves early on." – Seth Jones on Akira Schmid

CATS STATS

- Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak to six games.

- Brady Tkachuk became the eighth player in Panthers history to score a natural hat trick.

- Three Panthers record four or more points (Seth Jones, Brady Tkachuk, Matthew Tkachuk).

- Five different Panthers recorded two blocked shots (Sam Reinhart, Sam Lafferty, Seth Jones, Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov).

- Sam Reinhart led the team with seven shots.

- The Panthers went 4/6 on the power play and 2/2 on the penalty kill

WHAT’S NEXT?

Back home.

The Panthers will return to Florida and host the Vancouver Canucks at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.