Panthers 5-2 Jets: Lundell's first career hat trick deepens Winnipeg's freefall
Anton Lundell broke a season-long slump with three goals in his 372nd NHL game as Florida handed the Jets an eighth straight loss and completed the season sweep.
It took Anton Lundell 372 NHL games to score his first hat trick — and he picked a night when it doubled as a statement about where these two teams are heading. Lundell's three goals carried the Florida Panthers past the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 on Friday in Sunrise, Florida's third straight win and Winnipeg's eighth consecutive loss, per NHL.com's game recap.
From drought to deluge
Lundell entered the night with one goal in 13 games. "It has been one of those hard stretches," he said of the slump. Then: a wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 2:38 of the second, a rebound at the crease at 13:33 of the third, and an empty-netter at 18:21 to finish it — the Panthers' fifth hat trick of the season already.
Sam Reinhart had opened the scoring late in the first, and after Kyle Connor cut it to 2-1 on a 5-on-3, Seth Jones restored the two-goal cushion with a power-play one-timer at 15:24 of the second — the night's real turning point. Jones finished with a goal and two assists, giving him 18 points in October and a share of Keith Yandle's franchise record for points in a month by a Panthers defenseman.
Two teams, two trajectories
Akira Schmid made 22 saves for his third straight win and his fifth in six starts. "Akira has just gotten better and better in every game he has played for us," said coach Paul Maurice. Florida is 8-4-2 and has won six of eight.
Winnipeg's story is bleaker. Nico Daws — making his first start since arriving in the trade that sent Connor Hellebuyck to New Jersey on October 23 — stopped 33 shots and kept the score respectable, and Morgan Barron's first goal of the season briefly made it a one-goal game. But at 4-7-3 and 0-6-2 in their past eight, the Jets are running out of ways to frame it. "There are no moral victories right now," Barron said.