Thanks, Dad! Florida Panthers 4, Nashville Predators 1

With their fathers in the building on a memorable trip to Nashville, one had to figure the Florida Panthers would give it something extra on Monday night against the Predators.

Yessir.

Although it was a close game on the scoreboard throughout, the Panthers were all over Nashville and dominated play from start to finish.

In the end, it was Carter Verhaeghe’s goal early in the third — in his 300th NHL game — which put the Panthers up for good in a 4-1 win.

Florida snapped its four-game losing streak with its sixth straight road win.

The Panthers also saw Sam Reinhart set a career-high with his 34th goal of the season, extending his scoring streak to 10 games.

Sam Bennett ended the night with three assists — two of which were primaries.

Playing without top defenseman Gus Forsling, who is becoming a first-time dad himself, the Panthers were strong from the start as they outshot Nashville 14-4 in a scoreless first period and had a 21-4 advantage during the second.

Reinhart made it 1-0 on Florida’s first power play chance of the game at 11:19 of the second — only to see Nashville defenseman Jeremy Lauzon float one from the blue through traffic to tie it.

The Panthers went into the third tied at 1 despite holding a 55-29 advantage in shot attempts, but Verhaeghe made it 2-1 at 1:11 when he created his own space, slid into the slot, and fired a shot past Jusse Saros.

Although Anthony Stolarz did not see a lot of action, he was sharp when Nashville came calling in the Florida zone. 

With 12:34 left and Nashville on the power play, Stolarz made a huge glove save on Filip Forsberg while going down on the ice to keep the Panthers up a goal. 

On another power play later in the period, Stolarz made another big glove save on Tommy Novak.

Brandon Montour ended up icing the game with an empty-net goal with 1:38 remaining before Matthew Tkachuk followed suit with 18.9 seconds left.

Oh, and after giving up a franchise-tying five power play goals to Minnesota on Friday night, the Panthers went a sterling 5-for-5 on the kill in Nashville.

GOALS OF THE GAME

• Panthers 1, Predators 0 (11:19, 2nd PP): Yet another goal for Sam Reinhart as he picks up a puck in front of the net and shovels it over Jusse Saros.
• Predators 1, Panthers 1 (12:16, 2nd): Jeremy Lauzon throws one up from the point and the puck finds its way through traffic.
• Panthers 2, Predators 1 (1:11, 3rd): Carter Verhaeghe dips through the slot and fires off a shot to give Florida the lead back.
• Panthers 3, Predators 1 (18:22, 3rd EN): Brandon Montour takes the faceoff feed from Sam Bennett (three assists) and buries it for his second of the season.
• Panthers 4, Predators 1 (19:41, 3rd EN): Hey, hey, Matthew Tkachuk.

GR’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME

1. Anthony Stolarz, Florida

2. Carter Verhaeghe, Florida

3. Sam Reinhart, Florida

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ON DECK

ARIZONA COYOTES @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Season Series — At Arizona: Panthers 4, Coyotes 1 (Jan 2). At Florida: Wednesday.
• Last Season: Tied 1-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Tied, 20-20, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Friday at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.