Panthers vs. Kraken: Carter Verhaeghe's History-Making Hat Trick Leads an 8-3 Rout as Sam Bennett Adds Three

At this rate, the Florida Panthers should start handing out hats at the door. The hat tricks keep coming, and on Saturday night they came in two waves.

Carter Verhaeghe scored a natural hat trick, Sam Bennett scored three times for his first goals of the season, and the Panthers routed the Seattle Kraken 8-3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. According to the AP, Florida became the first team in NHL history with natural hat tricks in three consecutive games, after Brady Tkachuk had one in each of the previous two.

Bennett Breaks the Ice, Verhaeghe Breaks the Game

Bennett did not wait long to end his drought. Just 1:05 in, he batted in the rebound of a Matthew Tkachuk shot for a 1-0 lead. "You're going to have games where things don't seem to go in," Bennett said, "and other nights, it seems like everything goes your way."

Seattle answered at 4:54 when Shane Wright got a stick on a Berkly Catton feed in front to tie it 1-1, and for most of the first period it looked like a competitive game. Then Verhaeghe flipped the switch. At 17:56 he blasted a slap shot past Joey Daccord off a Sam Reinhart feed for a 2-1 lead. At 19:07, Verhaeghe struck again on the power play. Two goals in 1:11, and Florida took a 3-1 lead into the intermission.

Wright admitted that sequence was the problem. "At the end of the period there, then two quick ones to start the second. Kind of deflating," he said.

The Turning Point: 40 Seconds That Ended It

The second period buried Seattle almost immediately. At 6:02, Niko Mikkola tried a wraparound, and Verhaeghe cleaned it up at the left post for a 4-1 lead and the natural hat trick. Forty seconds later, Mikkola got one of his own, ripping a shot from above the left faceoff circle for a 5-1 lead.

That was checkmate. Anything after that was a victory lap.

Bennett made it 6-1 at 13:13, finishing a cross-ice feed from Brady Tkachuk. Freddy Gaudreau gave the Kraken a sliver of hope at 19:05, driving the net and sneaking a low shot past Jacob Markstrom, but that sliver lasted until early in the third.

Kaapo Kakko went off for interference 58 seconds into the third, and Florida's power play went to work again. Matthew Tkachuk sent a no-look pass across the ice to Reinhart, who one-timed it from the top of the slot at 2:25 for a 7-2 lead. Ryker Evans pulled one back for Seattle from the point at 3:49.

Bennett's finish came at 11:14. Uvis Balinskis found him in the left circle, and Bennett buried the one-timer for his third goal of the night and the 8-3 final. NHL.com noted it was the first time the Panthers ever had two players record hat tricks in the same game.

Who Stood Out

Carter Verhaeghe: Three goals in 17:05, including one on the power play. That gives him six on the season. "Sometimes they just come like that," he said. "It's pretty good to get a couple, get on the board, especially on the power play."

Sam Bennett: Three goals in only 12:25 of ice time, plus a plus-3. NHL.com noted the third goal gave him 400 career points (191 goals, 209 assists) in 776 games. Paul Maurice said he saw it coming. "I thought he had three great chances last game and they just didn't go for him," the Florida coach said.

Matthew Tkachuk: Three assists, extending his point streak to eight games, per NHL.com. He also joined Aleksander Barkov as the only Panthers players with 10 assists within the first 10 games of a season. He left the game after colliding with Bennett early in the third period and did not play the final 8:46; Maurice called it precautionary and said he likely would return to practice Monday.

Niko Mikkola: A goal and an assist with a plus-3, and the wraparound that set up Verhaeghe's third.

Brady Tkachuk: Two assists and a plus-4. NHL.com noted Matthew and Brady factored in on a goal together for the third straight game, the first brothers to do so since Daniel and Henrik Sedin in 2018.

Stats That Matter

• 4: Florida hat tricks this season, all in the past three games. The AP noted that matched the Panthers' total from the previous three regular seasons combined.
• 2 for 3: Florida's power play, with goals from Verhaeghe and Reinhart.
• 37-23: Florida's edge in shots on goal, with Daccord making 29 saves on 37.
• 66.1 percent: Seattle's faceoff win rate, which did approximately nothing for the Kraken.
• 1:11: The gap between Verhaeghe's first two goals late in the opening period.

What It Means

Florida improves to 5-2-2 with 12 points and has won three straight. NHL.com also noted the Panthers are the first team in over 100 years with four or more hat tricks before their 10th game, the last being the Toronto St. Patricks in 1922-23. Maurice sounded encouraged. "The speed of our offensive game is coming together," he said. "Now, you're starting to see some chemistry form with different players." Florida visits Ottawa on Wednesday.

Seattle drops to 5-3-1 with 11 points after entering 3-0-1 in its previous four. The game also marked the return of former Panther Mackie Samoskevich, who had three goals and an assist in Seattle's first seven games, according to the AP. Coach Lane Lambert was blunt about this one and calm about the bigger picture. "We got beat in every area," he said. "Tonight was not good, but the trip was good. Seven out of 10 points? We'll move on." Seattle closed the five-game road trip at 3-1-1 and hosts Detroit on Tuesday.

Closing Take

This was the hockey version of a sequel that somehow tops the original. Brady Tkachuk gave Florida back-to-back natural hat tricks, and the follow-up act brought two at once. For a team that says its offensive speed is just starting to come together, Saturday was a scary preview.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.