In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers got a hat trick from Sam Bennett on Saturday night and cruised to a 5-1 win over the visiting New York Islanders.
Bennett scored scored twice and Anthony Duclair scored between the first and second periods to give Florida a 3-0 lead.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in the win.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Bennett said. “I’ve had a lot of fun here in Florida, and every game I have more fun. We’ve got a great team. It was a great game.”
Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Isles i the second period.
“We’re spending a lot of time in our own zone,” New York’s Adam Pelech said. “We’re getting worn out down there and it takes a toll on you. Every time they enter the zone, we have to be dialed in with that, so there’s no excuses there.”
Bennett completed his hat trick in the third period to push the Panthers’ lead to 4-1.
“The first one was just going to the net and I was able to bang it in,” Bennett said. “The second one was a great pass from [Huberdeau] to find me. I was just able to wait out the goalie.”
Aleksander Barkov scored late to close out the scoring for the 5-1 final.
The Islanders are off to an 0-2-0 start to the season.
“I thought we were really good in the first two periods,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “They didn’t have very many scoring opportunities, but when we’ve been breaking down, we’ve been really breaking down in some areas. We probably didn’t deserve to be down 3-0 after two periods.”
Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves in the loss.
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