Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett of Holland Landing, Ontario recorded his second career National Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. Bennett scored thrice for the Panthers in a convincing 5-1 win over the New York Islanders.
Bennett opened the scoring from Radko Gudas and Gustav Forsling at 9:10 of the first period to put the Panthers up 1-0. He then scored at 3:48 of the second period from Jonathan Huberdeau of Saint-Jerome, Quebec and Aaron Ekblad of Windsor, Ontario in an all-Canadian goal to put the Panthers up 2-0. Then at 9:39 of the third period, Bennett scored from Matt Kiersted to put Florida up 4-1. For Kiersted, it was his very first National Hockey League point in nine NHL regular season games.
Bennett was one of two Panthers to have a multi-point game. The other was Forsling, who had two assists. The other two Panthers goal scorers were Anthony Duclair of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, and captain Aleksander Barkov.
Bennett’s first NHL hat trick came on January 13, 2016. It came in a 6-0 Calgary Flames win over the Panthers. Bennett was traded from the Flames to the Panthers at the 2021 NHL trade deadline.
The Panthers have won both of their games to start the 2021-22 NHL regular season. On Thursday, they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 in overtime.
