Reinhart's hat trick sparks Panthers past Avalanche for 7th straight victory
Barkov, Tkachuk each gets 4 points for Florida; Colorado has 4-game winning streak end
By
Ryan Boulding
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Reinhart completed the hat trick with a one-timer from between the circles on the power play at 5:59 of the third period to give Florida a 5-4 lead.
Reinhart has 11 points (10 goals, one assist) in his past seven games.
“You see a couple go in early, it's easier to roll that confidence kind of over and over, and [I'm] playing with some pretty good players as well,” Reinhart said. “When you can get on a roll like this, it takes some pressure off of some other times throughout the season when it's not going well.”
Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists, and Aleksander Barkov had four assists for the Panthers (25-12-2), who have outscored their opponents 31-14 during the winning streak. Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and had an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.
The Panthers took a 3-0 lead midway through the first period before the Avalanche tied it early in the second.
“To come out that quickly and get a lead like that and then have it disappear on you just as fast, I don't know,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “I liked the fact that our bench didn't get too high or too low. Even up three we were pretty solid, and then down and even.”
Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin each had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for the Avalanche (25-12-3), who had won four straight. Ivan Prosvetov allowed four goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Alexandar Georgiev at 8:50 of the second period. Georgiev made 12 saves.
“I liked the way we stuck with it,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I'm not going to lie to you. I mean, it's a game that had everything, right? I didn't like our start. Besides that, I liked our game. You're playing a team that's got a bunch of dangerous guys, and you're doing a good job suppressing chances for the better part of the game. You fight back in the game. You tie it once. You give up a bad goal, you tie it again.”
Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 1:10 of the first period with a one-timer from the right circle off Tkachuk’s pass from below the goal line.
Reinhart extended the lead to 2-0 at 3:02 when he redirected Gustav Forsling’s shot from the blue line off Prosvetov.
“Both ends of the ice, he's an amazing player,” Barkov, the Florida captain, said of Reinhart. “He just reads the game so well. He plays the game so well, and on top of it he's a very big threat to score goals and make plays.”
Reinhart made it 3-0 at 7:41 on a breakaway after Barkov fed him up the middle.
“I know it's a hat trick, but we've seen that hockey from him all year,” Maurice said. “So consistent with it. Barkov too. He's just such an astute hockey man, he can pick up the changes in the game very quickly.”
Makar cut it to 3-1 at 21 seconds of the second period with a wrist shot from the right circle to the far side. Nathan MacKinnon got an assist and extended his season-opening home point streak to 21 games (16 goals, 28 assists).
Josh Manson pulled Colorado to within 3-2 with a shot from above the right circle 31 seconds later. Bobrovsky made the save, but the puck caromed off Verhaeghe and over the goalie before trickling in.
It was the first time in NHL history two defensemen from the same team scored within the first minute of a period.
“I think we came out in the second with a different mindset,” Makar said. “We just went out there and we started attacking them and kind of tilted the ice a little bit in our direction, and then [got] some momentum from that.”
Nichushkin tied it 3-3 at 4:34 by deflecting Makar’s point shot.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored from the point to put Florida back in front 4-3 at 8:50, chasing Prosvetov.
Jonathan Drouin tied it 4-4 on a breakaway at 3:31 of the third period after outskating Niko Mikkola to the puck in the offensive zone.
“This year, we've come back from a couple of three-goal [deficits],” Makar said. “So I think, in the back of everybody's head, we know we're capable of doing that when we play our game. Being able to come back out in the second and tie it up pretty early on and then just kind of keep battling shows a lot of character in our group, but at the end of the day, it's tough to let that one slip away.”
After Reinhart gave the Panthers the lead, Kevin Stenlund pushed it to 6-4 at 8:59 with a backhand from the right circle following a face-off.
“Coming in here, we know how good of a team they are, how good they play at home,” Barkov said. “Another big one for us. It's all about the hard work, and obviously [the] second period we didn't like, but it's OK. We concentrated on the third and got the job done.”
Tkachuk scored into an empty net to make it 7-4 at 16:17, and Verhaeghe’s empty-net goal at 16:54 made it an 8-4 final.
Panthers forward Sam Bennett did not play after the second period because of an upper-body injury.
“We're not very concerned about it,” Maurice said. “We’ll get it looked at.”
NOTES: Verhaeghe extended his goal streak to an NHL career-high five games (six goals). … Barkov played his 700th NHL game. … Nichushkin became the third player on the Avalanche to reach 20 goals this season (MacKinnon, Rantanen), making Colorado the first team since the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins (Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Tomas Sandstrom, Ron Francis) and Philadelphia Flyers (Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Mikael Renberg) to have at least three 20-goal scorers through 40 team games. … Drouin has four goals in a three-game goal streak. … The Avalanche put defenseman Bowen Byram on injured reserve retroactive to Thursday, when he left a 5-4 overtime win at the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury. … Colorado forward Miles Wood (illness) was a late scratch.
