Carter Verhaeghe’s Hat Trick Leads Panthers in Win Over Islanders

SUNRISE, Fla. — After losing a two-goal lead in the second period, the Florida Panthers rallied back to defeat the New York Islanders 6-3 on Sunday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

On the back of Carter Verhaeghe’s first hat trick of the season, the Panthers won its third consecutive game while also snapping the Islanders’ seven-game win streak.

Spencer Knight stopped 31 of 34 shots in the win as the Panthers Atlantic Division leading Panthers improved to 32-19-3 on the season.

Here’s Sunday’s takeaways.

Rodrigues stays hot 

Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues has quietly been one of the most dangerous Panthers since the midway point of January.

After notting his 13th goal of the season in Sunday night’s win, Rodrigues has found the back of the net six times in his past 12 games. In the first 42 games of the season, he had seven goals.

The 31-year-old has been inserted all over the lineup this season, spending time in the top-six and on the fourth-line.  

“The offense is really important, but more for the culture of our group,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of Rodrigues’ increased offensive production. “He led our team in scoring in the Edmonton series (2024 Stanley Cup Final) and found himself on the fourth line (this season). We needed to change — we needed to spread some personnel out a little bit because of our schedule, and he handled that so very well. He played and I believe he found his game again. He got back to the game that he’s good at.”

Rodrigues’ 13 goals is fifth most on the Panthers, putting him ahead the likes of Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell, both of whom have 12 goals on the season.

Verhaeghe gets hat trick

Like Rodrigues, Carter Verhaeghe has given the Panthers ever important offensive production recently.

Scoring in the Panthers 5-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks the night before, Verhaeghe extended his goal streak on Sunday, scoring three goals as he picked up his fourth career hat trick.

Verhaeghe opened the scoring 39 seconds into the game, beating Islanders’ goaltender Jakub Skarek, who was making his NHL debut. 12 minutes later, Verhaeghe doubled the lead with his second goal of the period.

“It was nice,” Verhaeghe said when asked about scoring a hattrick. “[ I’ve] been shooting a lot lately and to get a couple feels pretty good. Our team’s playing really well and I’m getting some chemistry with Barky and Reino. They’re finding me in great areas.”

Verhaeghe completed the hat trick 10:41 in the third, scoring on the power play to put the Panthers up 5-3, with his 15th goal of the season.

The 29-year-old forward — who signed an eight-year contract extension earlier this season — has the fourth most goals on the team.

Kulikov honored for 1,000 NHL games

Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Kings, Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov skated in his 1,000th career NHL game, a milestone accomplished by just 402 players in league history.

Ahead of Sunday’s game against the Islanders, Kulikov was honored by the Panthers, receiving a commemorative silver stick pregame — an NHL tradition awarded to those who appear in 1,000 games — with his family, and both current and former teammates in attendance. 

“It was great to see so many congratulations from my teammates,” Kulikov said. “Just the recognition —it was really great.” 

The festivities also included a tribute video honoring the career of Kulikov, who was a first-round dra​​ft pick of the Panthers in 2009. The entire Panthers team also wore ‘Kulikov’ jerseys during warmups.

“That was pretty cool too,” Kulikov laughed when asked about his teammates wearing his jersey. 

Panthers Notes

Carter Verhaeghe led all skaters with four points (3G, 1A)

Aleksander Barkov led all skaters with three assists

Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist

Spencer Knight picked up his 10th win go the season