Bennett keys Panthers’ three-goal third period in 8-5 win over Canucks

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – Sam Bennett scored the tiebreaking goal at 4:02 of the third period and the Florida Panthers beat the Vancouver Canucks 8-5 on Monday night.

Seth Jones had two goals, and Luke Kunin, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, A.J. Greer and Brad Marchand also scored for the two-time defending champion Panthers, who had a season-high scoring total for their third win in four games. Sam Reinhart had three assists and Carter Verhaeghe two. Sergei Bobrovsky had 10 saves.

Elias Pettersson had two goals, and Drew O’Connor and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Vancouver, which has lost four of five (1-2-2). Quinn Hughes had three assists and Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane each added two, and Jiri Patera finished with 33 saves.

Bennett deflected a slap shot by Niko Mikkola to put the Panthers ahead 6-5 early in the third.

Jones then got his second of the night at 8:19, beating Patera from in front on a power play for a two-goal lead, and Marchand’s short-handed empty-netter with 1:46 remaining capped the scoring.

Pettersson scored at 7:55 of the second and again at 1:24 of the third to pull the Canucks within one. Hronek’s power-play goal at 3:14 tied the score 5-5.

Trailing by two late in the first period, the Panthers scored five consecutive goals to take the lead.

Just 36 seconds after DeBrusk put the Canucks ahead 2-0, Greer finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Bennett and Verhaeghe to get Florida on the scoreboard with 4:10 remaining in the opening period.

Jones beat Patera from the right circle on a rush with just under 8 seconds remaining in the first to tie the score.

Kunin, Rodrigues and Lundell scored in a 4:54 stretch of the second period to give the Panthers a 5-2 lead.

Kunin scored into an open net on a rebound at 2:23 to put Florida ahead, Rodrigues made it 4-2 from in front off a no-look, backward pass from behind the net by Reinhart at 6:10, and Lundell made it a three-goal lead with a tally from the right circle at 7:17.

Up next

Canucks: Host Dallas on Thursday night.

Panthers: Host New Jersey on Thursday night.