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 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.

--Field Level Media