The Finnish captain of the Panthers led his team to victory.
Aleksander Barkov did whatever he wanted against the Canadiens. Nick Suzuki was desperately trying to keep up. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Alexander Barkov returned to the Florida Panthers jersey after missing three games due to a knee injury, and it didn’t take long for the Finnish captain to prove his importance to the Florida team.
Barkov scored a hat trick against the Montreal Canadiens in the first period, which came in a brisk 15 minutes. It propelled the home team to a 7–2 victory.
According to the NHL Public Relations account, Barkov is by Steven Reinprecht after, the second player in club history who has managed to score three times in the opening set. There are six one-set hat tricks in the Panthers’ statistics.
At the same time, Barkov became the player with the most power play goals (67) in the Panthers before Scott Mellanby.
Goals alone did not make Barkov satisfied. He was also passing by Matthew Tkatchuk two overtime goals.
The Panthers’ seventh goal was completed Eetu Luostarinen, who has hit as many times as his captain this season. Both Barkov and Luostarinen now have a total of nine cabinets.
He made his debut in the home team Anton Levtchi, who wore the number 76 on his back. The game time of just under ten minutes included a one-minute experiment with superiority. Levtchi did not get any power points in his NHL debut.
With Barkov out for three games, the Panthers collected only losses. The loss of the Canadiens was extremely important for a team that played below its level, because survival in the playoffs requires a sharp change in the spring season.
Finnish powers
The Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 4–1 away from home. Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen collected an assist on the man.
Mikko Rantanen had two assists as the Colorado Avalanche fell 5-6 against the Los Angeles Kings. The victory of the match was decided by Rantanen’s unsuccessful attempt in the competition for the winning goal.
The New York Islanders inflicted their seventh straight loss on the Columbus Blue Jackets. For Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves in a 1–2 loss.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves as the Buffalo Sabers defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6–3.