Opening the scoring just 1:09 after the puck had dropped in the first period, Tkachuk collected a perfect pass from Aleksander Barkov and beat Karel Vejmelka with a wrist shot from just below the right circle to give the Panthers an early 1-0 lead.
Finding the back of the net for the second straight game, Eric Staal extended the lead to 2-0 when he beat Vejmelka from the right side of the net with a sharp-angle shot at 11:21. Steadily chipping in from the bottom six, Staal has posted six goals and six assists in his last 16 games.
With 2.1 seconds left in the first period, the Coyotes got on the board when Jakob Chychrun sent a slot pass from Clayton Keller past Spencer Knight from on the doorstep to cut Florida's lead down to 2-1.
Tying things up in the second period, Keller carried the puck across the slot before sending a backhand shot through traffic and past Knight to make it 2-2 at 5:17. Putting the Panthers back on top later in the period, Tkachuk roofed a shot right over Vejmelka to make it 3-2 at 10:37.
Getting the game back to a deadlock, Nick Bjugstad, who suited up for the Panthers for parts of seven seasons from 2013-2019, tipped in a point shot from J.J. Moser to make it 3-3 at 13:59.
Finishing off a nifty tic-tac-toe passing sequence, Staal took a pass from Ryan Lomberg and beat Vejmelka with a quick wrist shot from the slot to put the Panthers back on top 4-3 at 16:01. Fourth among active NHL players in goals, the goal was the 447th of his long and storied career.
"He took a year off," Panthers defenseman Marc Staal said of his brother. "For him to be doing what he's doing right now is pretty impressive. He's always had a knack for the net. He had some chances earlier that weren't going for him, and now he's finding a way to bury it."
Earning the third regular-season hat trick of his career, Tkachuk dashed straight toward the net in transition on the power play, took a tape-to-tape pass from Sam Reinhart and powered the puck past Vejmelka to increase Florida's advantage to 5-3 at 19:29.
