Verhaeghe has 3 points, Panthers top Predators for 6th win in row

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist, and the Florida Panthers won their sixth straight game with a 6-2 victory against the Nashville Predators at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

Sam Reinhart scored in his fifth straight game, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Aleksander Barkov had three assists for the Panthers (10-3-1). Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves for his fourth consecutive win.

Florida has a point in 10 of its past 11 (9-1-1) and was playing its first game since completing a sweep of the Dallas Stars at the NHL Global Series Finland on Saturday.

“We looked right and we caught them on a back to back, and that doesn’t happen too much for us this year where we’re playing a tired team,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We needed to take advantage of that. It took some work and effort from our team. I liked the way we started; I liked the way we played.”

Steven Stamkos and Juuso Parssinen scored for the Predators (4-9-1), who were coming off a 3-2 loss at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, and have lost three in a row and five of six. Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves.

“Back to back with some tough travel, I thought we came out with pretty good energy,” said Nashville coach Andrew Brunette, whose team took five of its 11 penalties in the first two periods. "That was kind of the season all summed up; we made some mental mistakes and took way too many penalties.

“I know Florida is a fast team, but we cannot play short-handed against them all game. We took careless penalties and for the second night in a row, that put us behind the 8-ball.’’

Reinhart gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 3:33 of the first period with his 11th goal of the season, and Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 5:14.

Evan Rodrigues extended it to 3-0 at 1:56 of the second period, scoring for the third straight game with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Verhaeghe pushed it to 4-0 at 11:18 with a power-play goal, backhanding a shot off a point shot from Uvis Balinskis.

“Getting the lead was huge, carrying it over and extending it was huge for us,’’ Verhaeghe said. “I thought we played a solid game. It was a little low energy, but we battled and played well.’’

Stamkos cut it to 4-1 at 13:52 with a one-timer on the power play off a pass from Roman Josi, but Verhaeghe made it 5-1 at 19:32, scoring on a cross-ice pass from Barkov.

“It was not just one of those nights. They were better than us from start to finish,” Josi said. “They kind of embarrassed us out there. They were faster, they were quicker, and they made better plays. They won battles. In every aspect of the game, we have to play better -- and that starts with me. We have to play a lot better as a team.”

Tomas Nosek extended it to 6-1 at 11:23 for his first goal with the Panthers after a cross-ice feed from Nate Schmidt deflected off his skate and past Wedgewood.

Parssinen scored just 28 seconds later to make it 6-2, deflecting Marc Del Gaizo’s point shot past Bobrovsky from the slot.

“We played with good energy, we started really well, and we played hard,’’ Barkov said. “We knew they were on the back-to-back so we knew they would be ready to play. We were more ready to play. We got off to a good start and carried it all the way to the end.’’

NOTES: Stamkos recorded his 100th career point (52 goals, 48 assists) against the Panthers (regular season and playoffs included) -- the most he’s had against any one franchise. … Reinhart’s five-game goal streak is tied with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals for the longest current run in the NHL. Ovechkin extended his goal streak with the game-winner against the Predators on Wednesday. … Barkov is the first player in franchise history with 100 multi-assist games. He also became the fourth Finnish-born player in NHL history to reach that mark, joining Teemu Selanne (167 games), Jari Kurri (167 games) and Saku Koivu (100 games).