Sam Reinhart had a hat trick while both Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk logged four points in the win

There were a few unknowns coming into the Florida Panthers matchup on Saturday afternoon as they paid a visit to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.

With the Panthers not having a morning skate, Head Coach Paul Maurice said to the media a few hours before puck drop that forwards Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues would be game-time decisions.

During warmups, they were both seen on the ice, with Barkov having a face guard after taking an elbow from Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez on Thursday night. Both were seen back on the top line during warmups.

Barkov would end up playing in his 700th career NHL game on Saturday afternoon, all with Florida, as the Panthers would end up on the winning end of a high scoring affair in Colorado by a final score of 8-4.

The Panthers got on the board quickly. As they prevented the Avalanche from clearing the zone, Sam Bennett got the puck deep to Matthew Tkachuk, where he found Carter Verhaeghe toward the bottom of the right circle and beat Avs goalie Ivan Prosvetov far side 1:10 into the game.

The goal meant the point streaks for that second line continued: Tkachuk and Verhaeghe at five games, Bennett at two.

Florida’s onslaught did not stop there. Barkov battled Nathan MacKinnon on the far side wall, circled the puck back to defenseman Gustav Forsling and his wrister from the blue line was redirected by Sam Reinhart for his 26th goal of the season to make it a two-goal lead at 3:02 of the first.

Shortly after the first television timeout, the Panthers got their lead to three. After catching both Avalanche defensemen deep in the Panthers zone, Barkov sent a stretch pass to Reinhart and he finished on the breakaway 7:41 into the first, his 27th goal of the season and 16th on the road.

That would be three goals on four shots to start the game for Florida.

The Panthers killed off a four-minute power play after Barkov went to the penalty box for high sticking Joel Kiviranta, but only allowed three shots against the NHL’s seventh best power play unit during the penalty.

As the double Minor ended, Barkov and Reinhart would go on a two-on-one, but were unable to convert to extend their lead to four.

A team with playoff experience like the Avalanche is never out of any hockey game, especially with them coming into Saturday’s matchup with a 16-4-0 record at Ball Arena. They would end up getting two goals in 52 seconds to cut their deficit to one to start the second period.

Nathan MacKinnon found the trailing Cale Makar as they gained the zone and beat Bobrovsky far side at 0:21 into the second frame.

The Avalanche then went on a 3-on-2, got it down low and got it back to the point where defenseman Josh Manson’s one-timer ends up going in with a lot of Avalanche jerseys in front. Bobrovsky had lost his stick on the play prior to the score.

Maurice would use his timeout to settle the team down after their lead was cut to one.

The ice was tilted in the Avalanche’s favor, and Tkachuk went to the box for a double minor for roughing on Samuel Girard after he crashed into Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Girard would also go to the box for goaltender interference.

Colorado would score on the power play thanks to Valeri Nichuskin’s redirection off Makar’s point shot at 4:35 of the second.

Florida had yet to register a shot on goal in the second and they had surrendered their three-goal lead.

It was not a surprise that this game did not stay tied at the rate that the goals were being scored early on. 

After Barkov won a puck battle down low, he got it up to the point where Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot went through traffic past Prosvetov’s glove to make it 4-3 Panthers.

“Barkov made a good pass to the blue linem” Ekman-Larsson told Bally Sports Florida's Katie Engelsson during the second intermission regarding his eighth goal of the season. “I saw traffic from their guys and our guys and I figured I would just shoot it to the net. A lot of good things are gonna happen if you don’t score. It’s gonna be a rebound or a second chance, so we’re going to keep pushing here.”

Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar would pull Prosvetov and insert Alexandar Georgiev after Florida reclaimed the lead.

Things would settle down as the period went on as neither team took full control of play after the Panthers took the lead.

The Avalanche would lead the second period in shots 13-7, but still found themselves down one. 

Colorado went on the power play at 16:56 of the second period after Ryan Lomberg went to the box for tripping, but the Panthers would end the period with the lead after the Avalanche pushed back.

Both teams had 14 shot attempts at five on five, but the Avalanche had more of the clear shooting lanes as they led in shots on goal 11-7 in the second frame.

Going into the third period was going to be a tall task with the Avalanche having the best third period goal differential in the NHL at plus-19 heading into Saturday afternoon.

Panthers got the long change period out of the way, and they were hoping to build off their 17-0-1 record when leading after 40 minutes.

However, the Panthers would face a bit of adversity as Bennett was not spotted on the bench to start the third period. He would not play the rest of the game.

Florida's latest lead would not last long. 

Colorado scored 3:31 into the third as the Panthers were caught too deep, and after turning the puck over, Girard sent a stretch pass to Jonathan Drouin, who finished on his forehand on Bobrovsky's blocker side to tie the game at four.

Opportunity struck for the Panthers as Evan Rodgrigues was high sticked in the neutral zone. Originally not called on the ice, the referee’s went to review the play and ruled it a double minor. 

Twenty-six seconds into the double minor, forward Logan O’Connor would go to the penalty box for delay of game, due to sending the puck over the glass.

The Panthers would make the Avalanche pay on the 5-on-3 at 5:59, when Barkov got the puck from the near side wall to Tkachuk down behind the net, then to Reinhart out in the slot, and he beat Georgiev far side to make it 5-4 Panthers for his seventh career hat trick and his third with Florida. 

The double minor would continue on as O’Connor was the only one to be released from the penalty box.

Despite not adding more to the scoresheet on the double minor, the Panthers would score a few minutes later. 

After a faceoff win by Kevin Stenlund, Lomberg would quickly touch it back to Stenlund who shot backhand with his back towards the goal to extend the lead to two once again at 8:59. 

That was Stenlund’s first tally since Nov. 28 against Toronto, and it marked a career high in goals with seven.

There was no looking back after that, as Florida would get two empty net goals to seal the victory.

Matthew Tkachuk would get the first one at the 16:17 mark for his 200th career NHL goal. That is now also three goals in three games to start 2024 for Tkachuk,

With the primary assist by Verhaeghe, that made it five straight games with a goal and an assist, dating back to Dec. 29 at home against the New York Rangers

It didn’t stop there for Verhaeghe as he added the second empty netter at 16:54 to balloon the Panthers lead to 8-4.

Barkov finished with four assists on the afternoon while wearing the faceguard, winning 57% of his faceoffs and skating to a plus-two rating, adding four shots on goal

Florida is now at a season high winning streak of seven games and guaranteed three-fourths of the points on the road trip.

Rest is going to be important these next couple of days as the Panthers will not play until Tuesday night in St. Louis. They are hoping to split the season series as the Blues came into Amerant Bank Arena on Dec. 21st and won by a final of 4-1.

Prior to Tuesday, the team will have Sunday off, but it's yet to be determined whether they will practice on Monday. That would be the earliest that we should expect an injury update on Bennett after Maurice said postgame that he had an upper-body injury and would be reevaluated. 

"As of right now we're not very concerned about it," Maurice said. 

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