Panthers stay hot, cruise past Coyotes

Carter Verhaeghe scored a goal and added an assist, leading the Florida Panthers to a 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz.

Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling also scored for the Panthers, who have won five straight games. Verhaeghe has tallied two points in four of his past five games.

Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves to improve to 5-1-0 in his past six games.

Alex Kerfoot responded with a goal for the Coyotes, who saw their two-game winning streak come to an end. Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 shots in the loss.

Florida scored twice in 42 seconds to open a 3-1 lead in the third.

Reinhart gave Florida a 2-1 lead on a power play, redirecting an Aleksander Barkov pass past Vejmelka for his team-leading 24th goal of the season. With the helper on the goal, Barkov passed Jonathan Huberdeau for the most assists in franchise history (416).

Barkov now has nine assists over a six-game stretch.

The Panthers took a two-goal lead at 8:38 of the third on Tkachuk's sixth marker of the season. Tkachuk was credited with the goal after Coyotes defenseman Michael Kesselring knocked the puck into his own net. The goal snapped a nine-game drought for Tkachuk.

Forsling added an empty-netter with 2:21 remaining in the third.

The Coyotes had tied it 1-1 when Kerfoot put Lawson Crouse's feed high glove-side past Bobrovsky for his fifth goal of the season at 3:17 of the third period.

Florida was outshot 15-14 but led 1-0 after one period thanks to Verhaeghe's 19th goal of the campaign.

The Panthers forward wristed a shot glove-side past Vejmelka at 10:46 of the first.

With 51 seconds remaining in the second, Coyotes forward Jason Zucker hit Panthers forward Nick Cousins dangerously from behind. Zucker was assessed a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. Cousins returned for just one shift in the third period.

—Field Level Media