Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart of West Vancouver, British Columbia collected his seventh career National Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. He accomplished the feat in a 8-4 Panthers win over the Colorado Avalanche at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Reinhart put the Panthers up 2-0 at 3:02 of the first period from Gustav Forsling and Aleksander Barkov. He then put the Panthers up 3-0 from Evan Rodrigues of Toronto, Ontario and Barkov at 7:41 of the first period to put the Panthers up 3-0. Reinhart’s hat trick came at 5:59 of the third period, from Matthew Tkachuk and Barkov. This was the game-winning goal on the power-play and put the Panthers up 5-4.
During the game, Reinhart was one of two Panthers to score in the contest. The other was centre Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario, who had two goals. Reinhart, Verhaeghe, and Rodrigues all had multi-point games. Verhaeghe added an assist for three points, and Rodrigues had two assists.
In 2023-24, Reinhart has 28 goals and 22 assists for 50 points in 39 games. He is a +17 with 17 penalty minutes, 17 power-play points, two shorthanded points, seven game-winning goals, 101 shots on goal, 125 faceoff wins, 39 blocked shots, 20 hits, 17 takeaways, and 11 giveaways. Reinhart leads the NHL with 13 power-play goals and seven game-winning goals. Reinhart’s shorthanded points (both goals) have come in Panthers wins. The first came in a 3-1 Panthers win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 19, and the second came in a 3-2 Panthers win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 27.
With the win, the Panthers improved to 25 wins, 12 regulation losses, and two losses in extra time for 52 points. They are in second place in the Atlantic Division, and two points back of the Boston Bruins.
