In Sunrise, the Panthers express rolled on to a 7-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Sam Bennett hit for a hat trick in the victory.
“Sometimes it’s just your night,” Bennett said. “You’ve got to take advantage of those nights because they don’t happen too often, but tonight was one of those nights, for sure.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in the Panthers win.
Roope Hintz was the Dallas lone scorer.
The Panthers improved to 25-7-5.
“It was a lot of fun,” Bennett said. “Our whole team was on our game tonight right from the start. We were playing well, we were playing with energy, we were having fun all night and that’s when we’re at our best.”
Jonathan Huberdeau (four points) and Anthony Duclair (three points) kicked in a goal apiece on the win.
“‘Benny’, ‘Huby’ and ‘Duke’, they’re really feeling it right now,” Florida head coach Andrew Brunette said. “They’ve got a lot of chemistry together.”
The Florida offense got started early in the first period off a strike from Gustav Forsling for a 1-0 lead.
“I was really happy to see that,” Brunette said. “He’s had so many good looks and he’s such an important part of our team. Beautiful goal. Tic-tac-toe. Really happy. Great play by [Huberdeau] and [Bennett]. Ecstatic that [Forsling] finally got rewarded.”
Dallas dropped to 18-14-2.
“There’s a lot [we didn’t like],” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “It starts with not being willing to compete.”
Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers.
“Pucks are going in,” Verhaeghe said. “There’s going to be times when it’s not like that, but we’re a really good offensive team and it’s showing right now.”
Jake Oettinger allowed four goals on 17 shots and was pulled at 6:03 of the second period. Anton Khudobin made 19 saves in relief.
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