Reinhart's 4 assists pace Panthers past Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Sam Reinhart had four assists and Aleksander Barkov had one goal and two assists for the Florida Panthers in a 5-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

Gustav Forsling had a goal and an assist, Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk scored and Anthony Stolarz made 17 saves to give the Panthers (17-8-2) their 3rd consecutive victory.

Reinhart set an NHL career high for assists in one game (he had two four times) and tied for the second-most in Panthers history. The record of five is shared by Barkov (March 8, 2019) and Anton Lundell (Jan. 31, 2022).

"He's so detailed with everything he does," Verhaeghe said. "He makes awesome passes, and he can score. He's a complete player. He's one of the best players on our team. You see it night in and night out. He's putting up the points right now but even when he's not, he's really effective."

Yegor Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov scored, and Jet Greaves made 31 saves for the Blue Jackets (9-16-5).

"We've got to find a way to come together and win those hockey games," Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger said.

Forsling scored at 1:02 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. Reinhart sent the puck from behind net to Barkov in the right circle and he passed it across to Forsling for his third goal of the season.

"We wanted to have a good start to this road trip and were ready to play the right way here," Forsling said.

The Panthers visit the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, the second of a five straight away from home.

Chinakhov tied it 1-1 at 7:06 with a shot from the high slot for his third goal in two games.

Verhaeghe made it 2-1 at 7:28 when he tipped in Reinhart's shot for his 13th goal.

"It was a bit of a grinder," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "It was difficult, it seems, for both teams to finish some of the opportunities they had. Both goalies made some good saves.

"We were pretty darn consistent. I don't think we had a lull. We had a handful of extended offensive zone shifts. They had a couple, but it was pretty consistent."

The Blue Jackets failed to capitalize on two power plays early in the third.

"It's 2-1, chances were pretty even after the first couple periods," Sillinger said. "We find a way to get that [power play] or get a bounce and tie it 2-2 and put some pressure on them and it changes the dynamic of the hockey game."

Barkov's power-play goal at 13:13 of the third made it 3-1 after the Blue Jackets killed all but 37 seconds off a seven-minute penalty on a major and minor penalty to Erik Gudbranson for fighting Nick Cousins. The Panthers had 11 shots with the man-advantage.

"A minute at a time. That was our idea," Blue Jackets forward Sean Kuraly said. "We know our kill's one of the best in the League. We know what we're doing. We have our structure, and we believe in it.

"You don't look at it as seven minutes, you see a minute at a time. We got 6 1/2 minutes. … We're obviously not happy about the result, but that's what happened."

Voronkov made it 3-2 at 16:11 with an extra attacker on the ice.

Tkachuk scored into an empty net at 18:05 and Eetu Luostarinen scored another empty-net goal at 18:59 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Reinhart extended his point streak to five games (two goals, eight assists). … Verhaeghe has 14 goals in 11 games against the Blue Jackets. The goal was his 200th NHL point (106 goals, 94 assists) in 281 games. He has seven points (four goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … Gudbranson and Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine played after each missed three games with an illness. … Sillinger returned after missing five games with an upper-body injury.