NHL

Florida Panthers at Columbus Blue Jackets

· National Hockey League

Brady Tkachuk has natural hat trick, brother Matthew has 5 assists as Panthers roll Blue Jackets 7-3

Brady Tkachuk catches fire with 3 consecutive goals in 2nd period

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Sam Reinhart added two goals and an assist, extending his point streak against Columbus to a franchise-record 12 games.

Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three of his brother's goals and had an assist on Verhaeghe's goal in the second for the first four-assist period in Panthers history. He extended his points streak to six games.

Brady Tkachuk became the ninth Panthers player with three goals in a period. He also had four points in the second as the brothers became the third and fourth Florida players with a four-point period.

Seth Jones contributed four assists, and Akira Schmid stopped 24 shots a night after replacing Jacob Markstrom following the first period of the Panthers’ loss at Buffalo.

Kent Johnson, Denton Mateychuk and Cole Sillinger scored for Columbus, and Damon Severson had two assists. The Blue Jackets lost for the third time in four games and have allowed seven power-play goals in 18 opportunities.

Cam Talbot stopped 17 shots before being replaced after allowing his sixth goal at 3:28 of the third period. Jet Greaves made four saves in relief.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead on Johnson's unassisted goal at 14:11 of the first period, but Florida took control from there.

Brady Tkachuk took advantage of a turnover by Carson Soucy in the Florida zone and pulled the Panthers even at 2:27 of the second with his first goal of the season. He added a power-play goal 3 1/2 minutes later and completed his fourth career hat trick, and second against Columbus, with another power-play goal at 10:30.

Mathieu Olivier was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing Uvis Balinskis at 13:44 of the second, leaving Columbus short-handed for five minutes. Verhaeghe scored on the ensuing power play.

Reinhart’s power-play goal 1:20 into the third gave him a Panthers-record 86 career power-play goals.

Columbus made it 6-3 with third-period goals from Mateychuk and Sillinger 22 seconds apart. Reinhart had an empty-netter.

Florida improved to 11-2-0 against Columbus since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Up next Panthers: Host Vancouver on Thursday.

Blue Jackets: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Regular Season Series

FLA leads series 1-0

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 14:11 Kent Johnson Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: none
Goal 2nd Period 2:27 Brady Tkachuk Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Matthew Tkachuk (3)
Goal 2nd Period 6:00 Brady Tkachuk Goal (2) Tip-In, assists: Matthew Tkachuk (4), Seth Jones (3)
Goal 2nd Period 10:30 Brady Tkachuk Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Sam Reinhart (1), Matthew Tkachuk (5)
Goal 2nd Period 17:50 Carter Verhaeghe Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: Brady Tkachuk (2), Matthew Tkachuk (6)
Goal 3rd Period 1:20 Sam Reinhart Goal (3) Tip-In, assists: Matthew Tkachuk (7), Seth Jones (4)
Goal 3rd Period 3:28 Carter Verhaeghe Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Lars Eller (4), Seth Jones (5)
Goal 3rd Period 13:47 Denton Mateychuk Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Damon Severson (2), Valeri Nichushkin (2)
Goal 3rd Period 14:09 Cole Sillinger Goal (3) Snap Shot, assists: Charlie Coyle (5), Damon Severson (3)
Goal 3rd Period 17:43 Sam Reinhart Goal (4) Snap Shot, assists: Anton Lundell (2), Seth Jones (6)

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/fla.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originFLA https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/cbj.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originCBJ
13 Blocked Shots 18
24 Hits 16
4 Takeaways 3
28 Shots 27
4 Power Play Goals 0
6 Power Play Opportunities 2
66.7 Power Play Percentage 0.0
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
30 Faceoffs Won 36
45.5 Faceoff Win Percent 54.5
21 Giveaways 15
3 Total Penalties 7
6 Penalty Minutes 25
Columbus Blue Jackets Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Florida Panthers Florida Panthers Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Radko Gudas, D Out Oct 15
Brad Marchand, LW Injured Reserve Oct 12
Aleksander Barkov, C Injured Reserve Oct 6
Jonah Gadjovich, LW Injured Reserve Sep 17

Game Information

Nationwide Arena

Location: Columbus, OH
Attendance: 13,538 | Capacity:

2026-27 Atlantic Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Boston 0 2 14 7
Tampa Bay 0 2 12 6
Ottawa 0 3 12 6
Florida 2 2 12 5
Buffalo 2 3 10 4
Montreal 1 3 9 4
Detroit 2 3 8 3
Toronto 2 4 8 3

2026-27 Metropolitan Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Carolina 1 1 15 7
NY Rangers 1 3 13 6
Washington 0 3 10 5
NY Islanders 1 3 9 4
New Jersey 0 4 8 4
Pittsburgh 1 4 7 3
Columbus 0 3 6 3
Philadelphia 3 6 5 1
Full Standings