Led by a hat trick from Sam Bennett, the Florida Panthers mocked the Dallas Stars, inflicting a heavy 7-1 loss on Friday at the BB&T Center.
The crowd favorites were already leading 4-0, shortly after halfway through the second period, when Bennett opened his scoring. The 25-year-old athlete hit the target twice before the end of the second period, before completing his feat with just over four minutes remaining in regulation time, in the final third.
Bennett finally finished his match with four points, he who was also an accomplice of the net of Gustav Forsling, the first of the local team, in the first period.
It was in the second period that the Panthers caused the most damage, hitting the target four times. In addition to Bennett’s two goals, Jonathan Huberdeau and Carter Verhaeghe flashed the red light. Anthony Duclair was the other scorer.
To return to Huberdeau, in addition to registering his 14th success of the campaign, the Quebecer continued his dream season by amassing three assists. He climbs to fourth in National League scoring with 51 points in 37 games. Only Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, with 53 points each, as well as Alex Ovechkin, who has 52, are ahead of him.
Huberdeau’s goal, the Panthers’ fourth, sent Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger into the showers prematurely. The latter only stopped 13 of the 17 shots aimed at him. His replacement, Anton Khudobin, yielded three times on 22 shots.
At the other end of the rink, Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for the victory. He lost his shutout 66 seconds into the third period. Forward Roope Hintz then beat him.
The Wild have fun against the Ducks
In St. Paul, the Minnesota Wild served a 7-3 correction to the Anaheim Ducks.
The crowd favorites shook the ropes three times in the first period to take a 3-1 lead. After a quieter second period, the Wild came back strong in the final period, hitting the target four times, including three in the first 125 seconds of the engagement.
Mats Zuccarello was the Wild’s most productive skater with three points. He flashed the red light twice in addition to being an accomplice to Ryan Hartman’s success.
Kevin Fiala, Matt Boldy, Victor Rask and Matt Dumba were the other goalscorers for the home side. Rask’s net signaled the end of the game for goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who gave up six times on 29 shots. As a substitute, Lukas Dostal saved 12 of the 13 pucks sent his way.
At the other end of the ice, Kaapo Kahkonen made 39 saves to sign the victory, yielding to Maxime Comtois, Trevor Zegras and Derek Grant.