Matthew Tkachuk's hat trick propels streaking Panthers past Blues

Red-hot Matthew Tkachuk scored a hat trick and earned an assist as the visiting Florida Panthers defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-1 Tuesday for their eighth straight victory.

Tkachuk, who grew up in St. Louis, has six goals and nine assists during his six-game point streak.

Kevin Stenlund and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers and Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves in his first start since Dec. 30.

Brayden Schenn scored and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for the Blues, whose two-game winning streak ended.

St. Louis struck first with Schenn's rebound conversion of Jake Neighbours' shot 3:24 into the game. That goal, Schenn's first since he scored twice on Nov. 30, snapped a 16-game scoring slump.

The Panthers tied the game 1-1 with 4:04 left in the first period. After Hofer stopped Jonah Gadjovich streaking in on the left wing, Gadjovich retrieved the rebound and backhanded the puck across the ice.

Stenlund broke to the weak side to bat the back-door lead pass into the net.

Florida took a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal 1:11 into the second period, with Tkachuk setting up Reinhart's point-blank shot with a pass from behind the net.

With Sam Bennett off the ice for a double-minor penalty for high-sticking, the Blues had a chance to tie the game during a four-minute power play. But the Panthers killed it off to maintain control of the game.

St. Louis opened the third period with another power-play opportunity, but the Panthers got another kill.

Then Tkachuk put Florida up 3-1 by scoring in his fourth straight game. On a 3-on-2 rush, he worked a give-and-go play with Carter Verhaeghe and scored with a one-time blast from the right circle 2:18 into the third period.

Tkachuk made it 4-1 at the 5:57 mark by deflecting Gustav Forsling's point shot past Hofer. He completed his sixth career hat trick with an empty-netter at 19:03.

—Field Level Media