RECAP: Bennett scores twice, Panthers pounce early in win over Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Paul Maurice had a good feeling this morning.
"There are games you come to the rink that you know your hockey team is going to be wired and on point," the Florida Panthers head coach said. "That's what we're going to be tonight."
Making that feeling come to fruition, the Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and never looked back during a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
"Really strong game," Maurice said when asked about his pre-game premonition after the win. "We seemed to have the right mindset from the start to the finish. We generated only two or three really good chances before we scored, and you start to worry that you'll force things. I thought we were in real strong control of what we were trying to do for the whole night."

After getting denied on several good looks in the early goings of the first period, the Panthers broke through when Matthew Tkachuk took a pass from Josh Mahura and roofed a backhand over Thatcher Demko from the slot to make it 1-0 at 18:14.
Just 35 seconds after Tkachuk broke the ice, Gustav Forsling followed suit when his shot from the left circle clipped off a defender and slipped past Demko to make it 2-0 at 18:49. With the floodgates now open, Ryan Lomberg cashed in on a rebound to extend the lead to 3-0 at 19:13.

Setting a new franchise record, all three goals were scored within a span of 59 seconds.
"Huge," said Tkachuk, who leads the Panthers with 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) this season. "I thought that it was even bigger to build off that. We didn't sit back. We didn't sit on the lead. They had their pushes in the second and in the third, but we did a great job of just giving it right back to them in the sense of just playing in their zone and having more shots, more chances."
Following Lomberg's goal, Demko exited with an injury and was replaced by Spencer Martin.
Padding the lead in the second period, Sam Bennett finished off a sweet tic-tac-toe passing sequence by ripping a shot past Martin to make it 4-0 at 11:38. But less than a minute later, Dakota Johnson went five-hole on Spencer Knight to trim Vancouver's deficit to 4-1 at 12:26.
Squashing any hopes of a would-be comeback for the Canucks in the third period, Tkachuk pounced on a loose puck after it took an awkward bounce off the boards in the defensive zone and set up Bennett for his second goal with a nice pass through to slot to make it 5-1 at 11:11.
Shutting the door, Spencer Knight stopped all 17 shots he faced in the third period to lock in the win.
"Every team has great players," said Knight, who turned aside 32 of 33 shots to improve his record to 7-3-3. "The Canucks have a lot of high-end skill, so you knew they were going to make a push regardless. If you're up by one, two, three or four, it doesn't really matter because they're going to make a push. They have a lot of talent over there, so it was fun to play against them."
With two games left on their five-game road trip, Florida sits at 11-9-4.
"We needed this one," Lomberg said. "Even besides the goals, we did a lot of good things for the majority of that game. … We've been playing a lot of good hockey, but just missing the full 60-minute games. There was a lot of emphasis on that tonight. Very proud of how the team did."

KEY QUOTES

"What we haven't done recently for our goaltenders is give them an opportunity to have a big night. We've had some games early in the year where we didn't allow a lot of shots, but allowed some high danger. I think there was volume there tonight, but the danger wasn't there as it's been in the past." - Paul Maurice on Florida's defensive performance
"They had their push in the early part of the third and he did an awesome job to hold the fort down." - Matthew Tkachuk on Spencer Knight
"We didn't start the way we would've liked, but it's all about the finish now. We got the two points tonight and we're looking forward to Seattle." - Ryan Lomberg on the road trip

CATS NOTES

• Florida's three goals in 59 seconds stands as the fastest scoring trifecta in the NHL this season.
  - The Panthers led 14-2 in scoring chances in the first period, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
  - Spencer Knight has reached 30 career wins faster than any goaltender in franchise history.
  - Matthew Tkachuk has recorded 11 multi-point performances in just 22 games.
  - Sam Bennett went 10-for-16 (62.5%) in the faceoff circle.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (11-9-4) will head back across the border for a matchup against the Seattle Kraken (15-5-3) at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET.