Panthers vs. Jets: Anton Lundell's Hat Trick and Seth Jones' Record October Sink Reeling Winnipeg

Somewhere in Sunrise, a Panthers equipment manager is running out of room for hats. Anton Lundell became the latest Florida forward to complete a hat trick on Friday night, sealing it with an empty-netter with 1:39 left, and Seth Jones turned his last game of October into a franchise record.

The Florida Panthers beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 at Amerant Bank Arena, finishing off a home-and-home sweep and stretching the Jets' winless run to eight games. Jones had a goal and two assists, giving him 18 points in October, the most ever by a Florida defenseman in a single month.

A Fast Start and a Familiar Pattern

Things got physical before the game was even three minutes old. Florida's Bokondji Imama and Winnipeg's Tyrel Bauer dropped the gloves 2:04 in, a rematch of an AHL fight between the two from 2024. According to the AP, they went at it for more than a minute and traded a respectful nod when it was done.

After that, the Panthers' power play did the talking. Sam Reinhart scored with the man advantage at 18:15 of the first, his seventh goal of the season, with Carter Verhaeghe and Jones assisting. Lundell made it 2-0 at 2:38 of the second off a Jones feed, and the Jets, playing a night after a 6-4 loss in Tampa, looked like a team running on fumes.

To Winnipeg's credit, it kept pushing back. Kyle Connor scored on a power play at 9:51 of the second, his team-best 11th goal, with Mark Scheifele and Neal Pionk assisting. But Florida answered with its own power-play strike at 15:24, when Jones finished a Reinhart pass for a 3-1 lead.

The Turning Point: Lundell Slams the Door

The Jets got one more push. Morgan Barron scored his first goal of the season at 8:46 of the third to make it 3-2, with Dawson Mercer and Dylan DeMelo picking up assists. For a few minutes, it looked like Winnipeg might finally steal one.

Then Lundell went back to work. At 13:33, he scored off assists from Lars Eller and Eetu Luostarinen to push the lead back to two, and the air went out of the Jets' comeback attempt. When Winnipeg pulled Nico Daws for an extra attacker, Lundell finished the job at 18:21, with Luostarinen setting him up again.

That second Lundell goal was the real backbreaker. Winnipeg had just climbed within one, had momentum for the first time all night, and Florida snuffed it out in less than five minutes. The empty-netter was the exclamation point.

Seth Jones Is Having a Month

Jones has been one of the best stories in the league in October. His three points on Friday gave him two goals and 16 assists for the month, breaking the Panthers record for points in a month by a defenseman. The previous mark was 17, set by Keith Yandle in March 2018, per the AP.

According to the Panthers, 11 of Jones' 18 points came with the extra attacker, with Jones quarterbacking the top power-play unit, and only Connor McDavid has more points since Oct. 12. Jones logged 24:16 and blocked three shots on Friday, so it is not as if the defensive side of his game has taken a vacation.

Jones, for his part, was refreshingly low-key about it. "They're just flowing right now," Jones said, per the team's website. "I judge it based on how smart my plays are, how efficient I am breaking the puck out and that kind of comes with it."

Head coach Paul Maurice was a lot less understated. "Seth Jones has been a huge, huge driver and we needed him [to be]," Maurice said. "He's offensively as strong as there is in the league from the blue line."

Lundell Joins the Hat Party

Lundell entered the night with one goal on the season. He left with four. His three goals came in 16:48 of ice time, and he also won nine of 17 faceoffs. According to the AP, it was Florida's fifth hat trick already this season. Earlier in October, Brady Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett combined for four of them in a three-game span, so Lundell is just the latest member of a very exclusive club that keeps getting less exclusive.

Akira Schmid made 22 saves on 24 shots in net for Florida, and the Panthers controlled the dot all night, winning 62.7 percent of the draws. Daws, who came to Winnipeg from New Jersey in the Connor Hellebuyck trade, made 33 saves on 37 shots and kept this from getting uglier.

Stats That Matter

• 18: Jones' points in October, a Panthers record for a defenseman in any month.
• 38-24: Florida's edge in shots on goal.
• 2-for-5: Florida's power play, compared with Winnipeg's 1-for-4.
• 5: Panthers hat tricks this season, with Lundell adding the latest.
• 0-6-2: Winnipeg's record over its last eight games.

What It Means

Florida improves to 8-4-2 with 18 points and has won six of its last eight games and three straight. The Panthers have done it largely on the road; the AP noted they entered Friday having played only three home games, the fewest in the NHL. They are also still without Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand because of injuries. Both resumed skating this week, and Maurice said Marchand could return in about three weeks and Barkov in about four. Florida hosts Detroit on Monday.

Winnipeg falls to 4-7-3 with 11 points, and the slide is getting serious. The Jets have not won since Oct. 13 and have lost all four games since trading Hellebuyck to the Devils on Oct. 23, every one of them in regulation. They also dropped both ends of this home-and-home, including a 5-1 loss at home on Tuesday. Next up is a Sunday visit to Carolina, which is not exactly the soft landing a slumping team would draw up.

Closing Take

The Panthers are playing without two standout forwards, and they still keep finding new ways to pile up goals. On the other side, Winnipeg is stuck in its own Groundhog Day, waking up every game to the same result. Florida keeps handing out hats. The Jets keep looking for the exit.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and team notes as reported by the Florida Panthers on nhl.com.