RECAP: Blackhawks Overpowered by Panthers in Loss

Paul Maurice earned his 900th NHL win when the Florida Panthers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

He became the fourth coach to reach the mark, joining Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (969) and Barry Trotz (914).

"It means you're old, but fortunate, for sure, that you have coached a lot of good players," Maurice said. "I just want to win the next win. That would be good."

Sam Reinhart had a goal and two assists, and Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (31-19-3).

Reinhart, who will represent Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, became the first player in Panthers history to score at least 30 goals in four consecutive seasons.

"It was nice to get the win," said Verhaeghe, who led all players with nine shots on goal. "We like where our game is at, we're trying to build something here and get to our identity a little bit. We played pretty well the past couple of weeks and weren't getting the results. But we've been sticking to our game."

Aleksander Barkov, who will be Finland's captain at the 4 Nations Face-Off, had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves.

"The guys work hard and play tight defensively and give us a good opportunity offensively as well," said Bobrovsky, who has allowed one goal in his past two starts after shutting out the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Wednesday. "It's fun to be there, fun to play with this team."

Landon Slaggert scored, and Petr Mrazek made 39 saves for the Blackhawks (16-31-5).

Ryan Donato won the opening face-off and pushed the puck forward into the Florida zone. Slaggert chased it down and beat Bobrovsky 5-hole for a 1-0 lead seven seconds into the game. It was the quickest game-opening goal in Blackhawks history.

"I was just focused on getting some pressure on their defensemen and the puck just squirted to an area. I saw I could get to it first," Slaggert said. "I just caught a break, and it ended up working out. Donato said in the pile that it might be the fastest so that's kind of funny to hear. It's pretty wild. Happened pretty quick."

For the Panthers, it was a quick wakeup call.

"Sometimes it gets you out of wading into a game," Maurice said. "We were pretty good after that. Strong first period for us. Pretty good start to finish."

Florida took a 2-1 lead into the second after outshooting the Blackhawks 22-4 in the first period and holding a 47-9 advantage in shot attempts.

"We obviously scored right away, but were then on our heels," Chicago interim head coach Anders Sorensen said. "They came at us in waves, and we had a hard time stopping that bleeding."

Jonah Gadjovich, returning to the lineup for the first time since Dec. 20 due to an upper-body injury, made it 1-1 at 5:28 of the first, scoring from in front of the net off his own rebound.

Chicago used a coach's challenge for goalie interference but the call on the ice was upheld after video review.

"Chicago has a good team, they're fast, and they came out hard in the beginning," Gadjovich said. "But there was a lot of time left, and I thought we did a good job of answering. We got the outcome we wanted."

Reinhart made it 2-1 at 10:19 by getting a pass from Barkov in the low slot and working to the left post, putting a shot under the leg of Mrazek.

Matthew Tkachuk, who will be an alternate captain for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off, made it 3-1 at 16:29 of the second by deflecting Reinhart's shot from the slot.

Evan Rodrigues one-timed a pass from Anton Lundell off the end boards 10 seconds into the third period to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead.

Verhaeghe scored a power-play goal at 9:37 of the third to make it 5-1 off a cross-ice feed from Reinhart.

NOTES: Reinhart tied Olli Jokinen for the Panthers record with his fourth 30-goal season, but is the first to do it in consecutive seasons. Reinhart has 151 goals with the Panthers which is one from tying Pavel Bure for fifth place on their all-time list. … Barkov had his 200th career multipoint game, the first player in Florida history to do so. … Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola played in his 300th NHL game; he had an assist and two shots on goal in 20:%6 of ice time. … The previous Blackhawks record for fastest goal was by Brent Sutter, who scored eight seconds into a game against the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 5, 1995.