5 TAKEAWAYS: Penguins 7, Panthers 6 (OT)

Wrapping up a daunting stretch of games on the road, the Florida Panthers secured a crucial point in a 7-6 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.
At 23-21-6, Florida is just four points out of both wild card spots in the Eastern Conference.
"We're just so much different a hockey team than we were a month ago," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "They rallied around each other, battled as hard as they could to come in and get a point on the road. In the circumstances that we're in, I couldn't be more proud of them."
For a quick recap of the game, click
HERE
.
To read up on five key takeaways for the Cats, continue below.

1. SWAGGY KEEPS SCORING

Carter Verhaeghe keeps on scoring.
Netting his 24th and 25th goals of the season against Pittsburgh, the speedy sniper matched and then surpassed the career-high 24 goals he notched in 78 games during the 2021-22 campaign.
Of his two goals, the most-important game in the third period when he scooped up a turnover in the offensive zone and skated around Casey DeSmith before cutting back to tuck the puck into the cage from behind the net to make it 6-6 with 2:32 left in regulation.

"I think I'm just trying to shoot more," said Verhaeghe, who is averaging a career-high 10.52 shots on goal per 60 minutes this season. "I'm playing with some great players. They're finding me on the ice in some great positions to score goals. I'm shooting more, and they're going in."
Tied with Matthew Tkachuk for the most goals on the Panthers, Verhaeghe is also tied for third on the team in scoring with 41 points. Earning more time than ever on the man advantage this season, his six goals on the power play are four more than his career total prior to 2022-23.

2. CHUK THIS OUT

Make it 20 multi-point games for Tkachuk.
Cracking the scoresheet in 11 of his last 12 games, the All-Star forward posted two points against the Penguins, including a power-play tally to make it 2-0 at 8:08 of the first period.
Since Jan. 1, Florida ranks first in the NHL with a 41.5% success rate on the power play.

Leading the Panthers and sitting eighth in the NHL in scoring, Tkachuk's 62 points (25 goals, 37 assists) are already the third-most by a player in their first season with Florida. With plenty of games left to play, he's set up nicely to overtake Sam Reinhart's previous record of 82 points.
Against the Penguins, Tkachuk recorded a team-high seven scoring chances.

3. THREE FOR EK

It's not often a defenseman gets to celebrate a shorty.
Springing into action and joining the rush on the penalty kill after Tkachuk forced a turnover in the neutral zone, Aaron Ekblad took a pass from Reinhart before ripping a shot past DeSmith from the right circle in transition to put the Panthers on top 4-3 at 10:34 of the second period.

The first defenseman in franchise history to record multiple career shorthanded goals, Ekblad scored his first shorty against the Philadelphia Flyers all way back on March 2, 2017.
Also dishing out two assists against the Penguins, Ekblad recorded the 12th three-point game of his career. Florida's all-time leader in three-point games by a defenseman, Ekblad ranks second to only San Jose's Erik Karlsson (15) in three-point games by a blueliner in the NHL since 2014-15.
In 39 games this season, Ekblad has produced 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists).

4. MONTY'S STREAK

The streak continues for Brandon Montour.
With an assist against the Penguins, the two-way defenseman extended his point streak to seven games, an impressive run that places him tied with MacKenzie Weegar (2020-21) and Keith Yandle (2018-19) for the longest point streak by a defenseman in Panthers history.
Having already blown past his previous career-high point total of 37 points from 2021-22, Montour ranks eighth among NHL defensemen in scoring with 41 points (eight goals, 33 assists) this season, including racking up one goal and six assists during his point streak.
Taking on more responsibility, Montour is averaging a career-high 24:22 of ice time per tilt.

5. LYON BATTLES

Alex Lyon battled all night long in between the pipes.
After manning the crease 24 hours earlier against the Rangers, the 30-year-old veteran call-up turned aside 42 of 49 shots against the Penguins. Never getting too much time to breathe, he faced at least 14 shots on goal in all three periods, as well as four shots in the extra frame.
Per NaturalStatTrick.com, Lyon made 12 high-danger saves.
"He battled so hard on every puck," Maurice said. "He made some huge saves there at the end."
Recalled from the AHL on Jan. 10, Lyon has played an important role in helping the Panthers pick up key points during a time in which both Spencer Knight and Sergei Bobrovsky have been unavailable. Over his four appearances, Lyon has posted a solid 2-1-1 record.
"I feel tired," chuckled Lyon, who's appeared in 28 career NHL games. "But it's rewarding. I just promised myself that I would be resilient and stick with it. I hope I demonstrated that, and I felt like I did. Just move forward and keep doing the best you can. That's all you can do."