Floodgates Opened For Carter Verhaeghe in 6-3 Win

SUNRISE, Fla. — The floodgates have opened for Carter Verhaeghe.

Verhaeghe recorded a hat trick in Sunday’s 6-3 win. It was the fourth of his career, and his first since a four-goal performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets in April 2023.

The sure-handed sniper had struggled to get pucks in the back of the net this season. He came into Sunday’s game against the New York Islanders with 12 goals in 54 games – a career-low pace of 18.5 goals over an 82-game season. He hasn’t scored in back-to-back games this year, and hadn’t had a multi-goal game until Sunday. 

But Verhaeghe’s resume –100 goals in the past three seasons, good for second-best on the team behind Sam Reinhart – would tell you it was only a matter of time until the dam burst.

On his first shift of the game, Verhaeghe got a nice feed down low from Sam Reinhart and backhanded the puck into the top shelf to go up, 1-0. 

Later in the first period, Verhaeghe charged towards the net as Gustav Forsling ripped a shot off Islanders goaltender Jakub Skarek. The puck rebounded right to Verhaeghe’s stick, and he tapped it home from the lower left faceoff circle to go up 2-0.

Up 4-3 halfway through the final frame, Matthew Tkachuk sent a cross-ice pass by three Islanders towards Verhaeghe in the left faceoff circle, and the leftwinger snapped it into the net to clinch the hatty.

After spending some time on the third line with Jesper Boqvist and Anton Lundell, Verhaeghe is back on the first line with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, which were the original lines when the season opened.

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

It was an incredibly efficient night for Verhaeghe: the three goals he scored were the only ones he sent on net.

“Really good for a shooter like that, because confidence is everything,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “And sometimes – I don’t even know if you’re off, it’s just not going for you. We felt his game was trending in the right direction. It started when he played with Anton for a while, almost a month. We liked the game. His numbers weren’t what he’s used to, and then he’s got it cooking now.”

Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight allowed three goals, all in the second period. He made 31 saves.

The Panthers also got goals from Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart, and an empty-netter from Matthew Tkachuk.

This is the first time since mid-December that the Panthers have won three games in a row. Still, they’ve treaded water and will enter Monday morning 32-19-3 and atop the Atlantic division.

Maurice credits the return of defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who missed almost three weeks with an upper-body injury. The tight schedule with six back-to-backs since mid-December haven’t helped either.

“You need something to turn for you,” Maurice said. “I think Aaron Ekblad comes back, and that’s such an important piece to us. That was kind of the push for us. I just felt like the stacking of the schedule going back to December into January didn’t allow us to have the energy and the jump to kind of get on a bit of a roll.”