5 TAKEAWAYS: Marchment nets 1st-career hat trick, Cats cruise past Wild

ST. PAUL -Mason Marchment recorded his fist-career hat trick and Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves to lift the Panthers to a convincing 6-2 win over the Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Friday.
Winning each of the first two games on their three-game road trip coming out of the break, the Panthers now sit at 34-10-5 and own a three-point cushion for first place in the Atlantic Division.

"It's nice to be back and compete with the guys again," said Bobrovsky, who has won six of his last seven starts on the road. "It's another big, big win for us. It's two points, and we'll move on."
With the Panthers getting into a bit of penalty trouble in the first period, the Wild opened the scoring on the power play when Jared Spurgeon teed up Kirill Kaprizov for a one-timer from the right side of the cage with a nifty slap pass from the blue line at 7:07 to make it a 1-0 game.
Evening up the score soon after, Marchment, just a few weeks removed from his six-point outburst at Columbus, got the Panthers on the board and made it a 1-1 at 10:02 when he jammed the puck through Cam Talbot's pads after his initial wrap-around shot was denied.
While his first goal was unassisted, all of Florida's red-hot third line got involved on Marchment's second tally. After Sam Reinhart used his wheels to negate an icing and chase down a loose puck, he dished the biscuit to Anton Lundell, who then threaded a pass through a few defenders right onto Marchment's stick for a goal from the slot that put the Panthers on top 2-1 at 12:29.
"That line has a lot of good chemistry," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "I think they enjoy playing with each other. They're taking advantage of it. [Marchment] has been on an unbelievable stretch. Tonight, it was two goals in almost three minutes to start the game."
Extending the lead for the Panthers in the second period, Anthony Duclair blasted a back-door feed from Jonathan Huberdeau past Talbot from the right circle to make it a 3-1 game at 8:38.
Helping the Panthers maintain that two-goal crucial cushion going into the second intermission, Bobrovsky came up with multiple high-danger saves in the middle frame. Of those stops, none were bigger than when he sprawled out to rob Kevin Fiala with a toe save right on the doorstep.
"He's been great all year," Brunette said of Bobrovsky. "He's just been dialed in. I think he's growing accustomed to our team and how we play. It seems like he's getting better every game right now. It's fun to see. He bailed us out in the first I thought, and he was rock-solid all game."
Keeping their foot on the gas in the third period, the Panthers padded their lead further when Aaron Ekblad, who's likely still full of adrenaline following his overtime winner at Carolina on Wednesday, took a pass from Duclair and scored on the power play to make it 4-1 at 1:41.

Answering with a power play goal of their own, the Wild then cut its deficit down to 4-2 when Mats Zuccarello, who has recorded 10 multi-point performances over his last 13 games, re-directed a centering feed from Kaprizov past Bobrovsky from on top of the blue paint at 9:42.
But, as they have done late in games all season, the Cats shut the door after that.
After the Wild pulled its goalie in hopes of sparking a comeback with the extra attacker, Carter Verhaeghe cashed in on the empty net to make it 5-2 at 13:18. Soon after, Marchment capped off his hat trick and locked in the win with an empty-net goal of his own to make it 6-2 at 14:33.
"I wished for the best, and it went in," Marchment said. "Then I got to celly with the boys."

After sweeping their three-game season series with the Hurricanes (33-11-4) on Wednesday, the Panthers have now swept their two-game season series with the Wild (30-13-2), whose only two regulation losses against the Eastern Conference this season have come against the Cats.
"We have great guys and a deep lineup," Bobrovsky said. "Each game someone is stepping up."
Closing out their trip, the Panthers will visit the Blackhawks for a matinee matchup on Sunday.
Here are five takeaways from Friday's win in the North Star State…

1. MARCH MADNESS

Marchment is one of only a few players that can answer this question.
Is a hat trick more fun than a six-point game?
"I'll take either of them honestly," he chuckled. "It was a great night, one I'll never forget."
Not only maintaining, but exceeding a point-per-game pace this season, the breakout winger has produced 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) in 24 games - all of which are career-high totals.

"He's oozing confidence right now," Brunette said.
Since Jan. 25, Marchment has posted 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in seven games.

2. THIRD LINE SHINES

Is there any team that can claim to have a better third line than the Panthers right now?
I highly doubt it.
On a tear ever since they came together, the trio of Lundell, Reinhart and Marchment all found the scoresheet against the Wild. Showing off some incredible chemistry, all three registered a point on Marchment's second goal of the first period, which was set up by some slick passing.

"We've said it a ton of times before, we just read off each other really well," Marchment said of the line's chemistry. "We're just trying to get open for each other, and tonight was a great night."
By the time the final horn sounded, Marchment had a hat trick, Lundell dished out two assists, and Reinhart, who was skating in the 500th game of his NHL career, chipped in one helper.
Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Panthers led 13-10 in shot attempts, 8-5 in shots on goal and, most importantly, 2-0 in goals over the 9:10 that the line was deployed in Minnesota at 5-on-5.
"We've just got to keep on the gas and keep going," Marchment said.

3. DUKE AND HUBY

You knew Duclair wasn't going to waste this dime from Huberdeau.
Taking a back-door dish from No. 11, the speedy winger dropped to one knee and rifled a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle into the net to push the lead to 3-1 in the second period.
With the goal, Duclair achieved the third 20-goal season of his career.

As for Huberdeau, the Hart Trophy contender finished the game with two helpers to increase his point total on the season to 68, which once again places him back into a tie with Edmonton's dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for first place on the league's scoring list.
Also upping his league-leading assist total to 51, Huberdeau became the first player in franchise history to record three seasons with at least 50 assists. Additionally, according to the folks over at the NHL, he also became the fourth-fastest left winger to register 50 assists in league history.

4. COOKIE IS BACK

Judging by how he played, you'd never guess Acciari had been sidelined since October.
Making his season debut after a preseason injury had kept him out of action for a little more than four months, the hard-nosed forward recorded one shot, one block and two hits over 11:47 of ice time against the Wild, while also winning two of the three draws he took in the faceoff dot.
"I thought he played really well," Brunette said. "It was nice to see him out there. I thought he competed and did the things that he can do. In the third period, I thought he got better every shift that he played. It was a good sign for us."
Also finishing with strong underlying numbers, Acciari posted a 78.95 CF% at 5-on-5, which was stood out as the second-best mark for the Cats. When he was on the ice at 5-on-5 play, Florida owned advantages in shot attempts (15-4) and scoring chances (7-2), per NaturalStatTrick.com.
In 41 games last season, Acciari tallied 11 points (seven goals, four assists).

5. BOB DOES IT AGAIN

You can't forget about Bob.
Brick-walling his way to a fifth straight win, Bobrovsky stopped 24 of 26 shots against the Wild, including turning aside six of seven shots from high-danger areas, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
"I thought he was awesome," Brunette said. "I thought he was really quiet. He looked big. I thought it was one of the sharpest games I've seen him play. He was dialed in right from the start. In the first period when we weren't that sharp, he bailed us out."
As for his toe save on Fiala in the second period, he said it all came down to timing.

"I was a little late," Bobrovsky said when asked about the play. "The puck was little on the outside. They missed the net or they tipped it a little bit. It was just that the timing was perfect. The puck was maybe not as fast as it could be, so I was able to put my pad on it there."
With the win, Bobrovsky improved his stellar record to 25-4-3.