SUNRISE, Fla. — Sam Reinhart got his 30th goal of the season and added two assists, Matthew Tkachuk scored for the third time in the last four games and the Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1 on Saturday.
Reinhart is the second player to have four 30-goal seasons for Florida, with Olli Jokinen being the other. Reinhart is the first to do it in four consecutive seasons with the Panthers.
Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Jonah Gadjovich also scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots. Aleksander Barkov had two assists for the Panthers, who ensured they would remain atop the Atlantic Division.
The win was the 900th regular-season victory as a coach for Florida’s Paul Maurice, who is the fourth to hit that milestone. The others: Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (969) and Barry Trotz (914).
Chicago got the fastest goal in franchise history for a quick 1-0 lead, with Landon Slaggert scoring just seven seconds into the contest. Petr Mrazek stopped 39 shots for the Blackhawks, who are 2-6-3 in their last 11 games.
Chicago fell to 0-23-2 this season when allowing at least four goals, 0-27-3 in its last 30 such games dating to last season. But Mrazek was, at times, sensational on Saturday — especially in a first-period barrage.