Brady Tkachuk scored three unanswered goals, including the overtime winner, to carry the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday at Amerant Bank Arena.
Vancouver built a two-goal advantage in the opening frame. Liam Ohgren opened the scoring at 7:23 of the first period, snapping home a feed from Linus Karlsson. Elias Pettersson doubled the lead to 2-0 at 17:06 with an even-strength snap shot setup by Filip Chytil and Brock Boeser.
The Panthers mounted their comeback in the third period. Tkachuk cut the deficit to 2-1 at 11:11 with a snap shot off assists from Aaron Ekblad and Matthew Tkachuk. With only 13 seconds left in regulation, Tkachuk struck again on a slap shot assisted by Carter Verhaeghe and Seth Jones to tie the score 2-2. At 2:23 of overtime, Tkachuk finished his hat trick with a snap shot off passes from Jones and Sam Reinhart.
Panthers goaltender Akira Schmid earned the win by turning aside 16 of 18 shots. Canucks netminder Leevi Merilainen stopped 36 of 39 shots in the overtime loss. Both teams came up empty on special teams, with Vancouver finishing 0 for 3 on the power play and Florida failing to score on two opportunities.
With the win, Florida extended its winning streak to two games and improved to 4-2-2 on the season. Vancouver saw its winless streak reach six games (0-5-1), dropping the Canucks' overall record to 2-6-1.
The Canucks return home to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. Florida heads back on the road to visit the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.
