Panthers Make NHL History With Third Straight Natural Hat Trick in 8-3 Rout of Kraken

The hats kept coming at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Saturday, and by the time the second one rained down, the Florida Panthers had a piece of NHL history all to themselves. Florida routed the Seattle Kraken 8-3, powered by two separate hat tricks in the same game — and one of them completed a streak the league had never seen before.

Carter Verhaeghe scored at 17:56 of the first period, again at 19:07 of the first, and again at 6:02 of the second — three consecutive goals, a natural hat trick — to give the Florida Panthers a natural hat trick in three straight games, a first in NHL history. Brady Tkachuk started the run with a natural hat trick on Oct. 13 against Columbus, then did it again on Oct. 15 against Vancouver. Verhaeghe's Saturday finish made it three games, three naturals, one team.

A natural hat trick is the purest version of the feat: three goals in a row by the same player, with nobody on either team scoring in between. Plenty of players have done it. Plenty of teams have stacked hat tricks across a hot week. Nobody, until Saturday in Sunrise, had strung naturals together in three consecutive games — and Florida did it with two different players doing the damage.

Verhaeghe was not even the first Panther to complete a hat trick on Saturday. Sam Bennett opened the scoring 1:05 into the game, scored again at 13:13 of the second period, and finished his hat trick at 11:14 of the third. Bennett's big afternoon also carried a personal milestone: the hat trick included the 400th point of his career. Between Bennett's opener and his third-period finisher, Florida's offense never really let Seattle breathe.

Put the two performances together and Saturday produced another franchise first: never before in Panthers history had two Florida players scored hat tricks in the same game. Bennett and Verhaeghe accounted for six of the eight goals, and the support work was just as heavy. Niko Mikkola and Sam Reinhart each finished with a goal and an assist. Matthew Tkachuk collected three assists before leaving the game early after a collision with Bennett. Brady Tkachuk — the man who started this whole natural-hat-trick run earlier in the week — added two assists, giving the Tkachuk brothers a hand in the record night even on the evening Verhaeghe grabbed the headline.

In net, Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves for Florida, which improved to 5-2-2. Seattle got goals from Shane Wright, Frederick Gaudreau and Ryker Evans, and goaltender Joey Daccord made 29 saves in the loss. The Kraken fell to 5-3-1, a respectable record that made the margin in Sunrise stand out even more: this was not a bottom-feeder getting run over, but a winning team catching Florida on a night when everything the Panthers touched turned into a scoring chance.

What makes the three-game natural run so strange is how many things have to line up at once. A natural requires one player to own an uninterrupted stretch of the scoresheet — no power-play goal from a teammate in between, no empty-netter from the fourth line, nothing. For that to happen once is a good night. For it to happen three games running, with the baton passed from Brady Tkachuk to Verhaeghe, is the kind of trivia that usually takes a century of hockey to produce. The Panthers produced it in five days.

Around the league on Saturday

Florida's fireworks headlined the Saturday matinee slate, but three other finals are in the books. The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2, a tidy two-goal win for a Lightning team keeping pace in the Atlantic. The Washington Capitals beat the New Jersey Devils 4-2 in a Metropolitan clash, matching Tampa Bay's margin in the other conference race. And the Carolina Hurricanes went into Winnipeg and edged the Winnipeg Jets 3-2, the tightest final of the day — a one-goal road win against a Jets crowd that rarely watches its team lose low-scoring games quietly.

None of those results reshaped the standings on their own, but together with the Sunrise rout they sketched the early shape of the season: Florida, Tampa Bay and Carolina all banking points on the same afternoon, Washington keeping its own run tidy, and the natural-hat-trick Panthers sitting in the middle of it with the league's strangest — and hottest — scoring story.

Tonight: Oilers close the home-and-home in Utah

The night slate is headlined by a quick rematch. The Edmonton Oilers visit the Utah Mammoth at Delta Center (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+/SN) to close a home-and-home set that Utah opened with a statement on Thursday, winning 4-2 in Edmonton. In that game, Clayton Keller scored twice — including a power-play goal and an empty-netter — Barrett Hayton added a power-play goal, and Logan Cooley also scored. Karel Vejmelka stopped 22 of 24 shots. Leon Draisaitl and Shakir Mukhamadullin scored for Edmonton, and goaltender Levi made 20 saves.

Utah arrives at 6-2-0 on a three-game win streak, with numbers that explain the start: the Mammoth own the NHL's best power play at 37.5 percent and are scoring 3.88 goals per game. Nick Schmaltz leads the team with six goals, Keller leads with eight assists, and the two share the team points lead at 11 apiece. Vejmelka has been the backbone, going 5-1-0 with a 2.39 goals-against average, a .898 save percentage and one shutout.

Edmonton, at 5-1-1, had a five-game win streak snapped in Thursday's loss and will not lack for firepower in the rematch. The Oilers are scoring 4.43 goals per game, tied for the most in the league. Connor McDavid's 14 assists and 18 points both lead the team, Vasily Podkolzin has a team-high seven goals, and defenseman Evan Bouchard is producing like a fourth forward at 6 goals, 9 assists and 15 points. If Thursday was Utah announcing itself, Saturday night is Edmonton's chance to answer before the set closes.

Tonight in Vegas: Penguins at Golden Knights

The other late start puts the Pittsburgh Penguins at T-Mobile Arena against the Vegas Golden Knights (10 p.m. ET). Vegas comes in off a 6-2 win over Calgary on Thursday, Oct. 15 — the kind of comfortable home result the Golden Knights have built their identity on — and a visiting Penguins team walks into one of the league's loudest buildings for the late window. Between the record afternoon in Sunrise, the rematch in Utah and a marquee nightcap in Vegas, Saturday gave the NHL a full day's worth of storylines. The Panthers, though, own the one that goes in the record book. More coverage is on the Previously sports hub and the NHL hub.