The Florida Panthers, with help from Noel Acciari’s hat trick, beat the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Saturday afternoon. Florida (15-4-4, 34 points) now ties Tampa Bay (16-4-2, 34 points) for the most points in the Central Division.
Takeaways
- Four Panther players scored two points on Saturday (Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Huberdeau, Frank Vatrano, and Keith Yandle).
- Noel Acciari registered his third career hat trick, joining Pavel Bure, Olli Jokinen, and Ray Sheppard as the fourth Florida Panthers player in franchise history to have registered at least three hat tricks with the club.
After scoring back-to-back hat tricks last season, Acciari said “a lot of guys are putting a lot of pressure on me about tomorrow now.”
- Noel Acciari’s three goals on Saturday were his first three goals of the season.
Coach Q on Acciari: “He either scores none, or he scores three.”
- Jonathan Huberdeau scored his 158th NHL goal, passing Scott Mellanby (157) for the third-most goals in Florida Panthers franchise history.
- Patric Hornqvist earned his 500th career point on the Jonathan Huberdeau goal.
- Grigory Denisenko, the Panthers’ 2018 first round pick (15th overall), played in his first NHL game on Saturday.
Stats
Sergei Bobrovsky earned his 8th win of the season (8-2-2) while stopping 28 out of 30 shots. Meanwhile, Predators goalie Pekka Rinne only stopped 26 out of 32 shots.
Patric Hornqvist: “It’s been good so far for us. We move the puck really well in the offensive zone. We use all five guys. We’re never standing still with the puck. That’s the key… We feel like we have something going, but we can’t sit back now.”
Next Up
After winning both games in Nashville, the Panthers now travel to Carolina to face the Hurricanes for one game. Puck drop is on Sunday, March 7th, at 5:00 PM EST.