Blues fall to Panthers as Tkachuk scores hat trick in home town

ST. LOUIS — Matthew Tkachuk scored a hat trick and had an assist for the Florida Panthers in their eighth straight win, 5-1 against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.

“It felt amazing,” Tkachuk said of his fifth NHL hat trick. “I said it this morning, I scored a lot of goals in this rink when I was younger, (but) I haven’t scored much at the NHL level, so I’m glad I was saving them up for tonight.”

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Sam Reinhart scored for the fourth straight game, and Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for the Panthers (26-12-2), whose winning streak is their longest since 13 straight March 29-April 23, 2022.

Florida wrapped up a four-game road trip.

“I don’t think any of it was easy for us,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We had no legs, so we had to make a whole bunch of mental adjustments as the game went on. Part of it was just what it’s going to look like. I’m really happy with this win as much as any win we’ve had on this trip for sure.”

Brayden Schenn scored, and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for the Blues (20-18-1), who won their previous two games.

“I actually feel we deserved better offensively,” Schenn said. “We had some looks, power play had some looks and the goalie made some saves, but then in saying that, third period, I don’t think we were assertive enough, hungry enough to play with it in their end more and it resulted in them spending time on our own end and getting deflections and goals and before we know it, the game’s out of reach.”

Schenn’s first goal since Nov. 30 gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 3:24 of the first period when he put in a rebound from the bottom of the left circle off Jake Neighbours’ shot in front.

“For me personally, I’ve been in this league a long time, nothing comes for free and sometimes you have to battle a little bit of adversity,” Schenn said of his first goal in 17 games. “The only way to get through it is to work your way out of it, and that’s doing extra and the little things to try and help. Hopefully this is a start where I can help guys like [Robert Thomas] and [Pavel Buchnevich] and stuff like that.”

Kevin Stenlund tied it 1-1 at 15:56 when finished off a backhand pass from Jonah Gadjovich in the slot.

Reinhart’s 14th power-play goal of the season, a one-timer from the slot at 1:11 of the second period, gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

The Blues had a chance to tie the game on a four-minute power play when Sam Bennett was given a double minor for high-sticking at 1:57 of the second period.

St. Louis went 0-for-4 on the power play.

“Yeah, it has to be a difference,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said of special teams. “Good teams in this league are able to, whether it’s separating games, whether it’s to tie games up when they’re down, they find ways to score goals, to give them energy on the bench. And not saying we’re not getting any energy off our power play, but we have to get our power play in the right mindset that when they step on the ice, they’re going to be difference-makers for us. That’s what we need from those guys. They are difference-makers, they’re our best players and they have to make a difference when they go on the ice.”

Tkachuk pushed it to 3-1 with a one-timer from the right circle at 2:18 of the third period off a give-and-go with Carter Verhaeghe.

Tkachuk’s fifth goal in four games made it 4-1 at 5:57 when he tipped in Gustav Forsling‘s wrist shot from the left point.

He completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:03 for the 5-1 final.

“Our team is rolling pretty well right now,” Tkachuk said. “This was actually a very hard game for us considering we had a few days off in Vail [Colorado], a long road trip out West, and we just grinded it out. It’s a good win to show us how we can win in a game when you’re feeling like that against a good team.”

NOTES: Tkachuk has 24 points (seven goals, 17 assists) in 18 games against St. Louis, and has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak. … Florida has outscored its opponents 36-15 during its winning streak. … Reinhart has six goals during his goal streak, and 12 points (11 goals, one assist) in the past eight games. … Verhaeghe has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak, but had his five-game goal streak end. … Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov had an assist to give him 14 in the past eight games. … Forsling has five points (one goal, four assists) in a four-game point streak. … Blues forwards Kevin Hayes and Jakub Vrana were each minus-3.