Lundell’s hat trick lifts Panthers past Jets 5-2

SUNRISE, Fla. – Anton Lundell scored his first NHL hat trick as the Florida Panthers beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 on Friday night.

Sam Reinhart and Seth Jones also scored for the Panthers (8-4-2), and Akira Schmid made 22 saves.

Connor Kyle and Morgan Barron scored for the Jets (4-7-3), who are 0-6-2 in their past eight games. Nico Daws made 33 saves.

Reinhart opened the scoring at 18:15 of the first period, and Lundell made it 2-0 at 2:38 of the second. Kyle got Winnipeg on the board at 9:51 with a five-on-three power-play goal with six seconds left on the advantage. Jones restored the two-goal lead on the power play at 15:24, with Reinhart assisting.

Barron cut it to 3-2 at 8:46 of the third period for his first goal of the season. Lundell scored again at 13:33, then completed the hat trick into an empty net at 18:21.

“Akira has just gotten better and better in every game he has played for us,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, according to NHL.com.

Jets coach Scott Arniel saw some progress despite the result. “That is a lot closer to how we need to play for 60 minutes,” he said.

Barron was less forgiving. “We have to stop the bleeding at some point. There are no moral victories right now,” he said.

The win completed a season sweep of Winnipeg for Florida, which earlier beat the Jets 5-1 as Carter Verhaeghe scored twice.

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Via NHL.com. Score also confirmed by the Panthers’ site and Sofascore.