Panthers dispatch Islanders to win third straight

Panthers dispatch Islanders to win third straight

Carter Verhaeghe scored his fourth career hat trick and added an assist to lead the Florida Panthers to a 6-3 win over the visiting New York Islanders on Sunday night.Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkach

Carter Verhaeghe scored his fourth career hat trick and added an assist to lead the Florida Panthers to a 6-3 win over the visiting New York Islanders on Sunday night.

Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who have won three straight. Aleksander Barkov had three assists, Gustav Forsling had two, and Spencer Knight made 31 saves.

Kyle MacLean, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Marc Gatcomb scored for the Islanders, who had won a season-high seven straight games. Dennis Cholowski had two assists and Jakub Skarek, 25, made 27 saves in his NHL debut.

Both teams were playing the second of back-to-backs.

Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead just 39 seconds in when he took a pass in front from Sam Reinhart and lifted a backhander past Skarek.

Verhaeghe made it 2-0 at 12:52, knocking in the rebound of Forsling’s shot on the rush.

MacLean pulled the Islanders within 2-1 at 3:10 of the second period when he scored in front off the rebound of Tony DeAngelo’s shot.

Pageau tied the score 2-2 with a power-play goal at 10:00, knocking in a loose puck at the right post.

Gatcomb put New York ahead 3-2 at 14:51. Gatcomb was stopped on a breakaway, but moments later he tipped in Adam Pelech’s shot from the left point.

Evan Rodrigues tied the score 3-3, sliding a back-hand shot past Skarek from in front of the crease off a pass from Anton Lundell.

Reinhart gave the Panthers a 4-3 lead when he entered the zone 2-on-1 with Gustav Forsling, got behind the defense and tapped in a return pass at 19:09.

Verhaeghe finished his hat trick at 10:41 of the third period, scoring a power-play goal on a shot from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Matthew Tkachuk to make it 5-3.

Tkachuk scored into an empty net at 18:21 for the 6-3 final.

New York played without Scott Mayfield and Mathew Barzal, who were both injured on Saturday.