Carter Verhaeghe and Aleksander Barkov each scored three points and red-hot Sam Reinhart scored again as the host Florida Panthers won their sixth straight game, defeating the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Thursday night in Sunrise, Florida.

Verhaeghe scored two goals and provided one assist. Barkov scored three assists.

Reinhart has scored 11 goals this season, including at least one in five straight games. Reinhart entered the day in a five-way tie for the NHL scoring lead.

The Panthers are 9-0-0 this season when Reinhart scores. In his last five games, Reinhart scored six goals and three assists.

In addition to Verhaeghe and Reinhart, the Panthers got goals from Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues and Tomas Nosek.

Panthers goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves to secure the victory. He has won four starts in a row.

Steven Stamkos and Juuso Parssinen scored for Nashville, and Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves.

This was Florida’s first game since playing in Finland on Saturday. Nashville was playing its second game in two nights after losing at Washington on Wednesday.

Florida led 2-0 after the first period and 5-1 after the second. In those first 40 minutes, the Panthers had 51 shot attempts and 25 shots on goal. Nashville had 27 shot attempts and 11 shots on goal.

The Panthers opened the scoring with just 3:33 left after Reinhart’s all-around goal. Barkov had the first assist.

Florida was on a rush less than two minutes later when Tkachuk scored to make it 2-0.

The Panthers struck again just 1:56 into the second when Rodrigues emerged from behind Nashville’s net, got into position and then fired.

Florida made it 4-0 with a power play goal. Verhaeghe positioned himself in front of Wedgewood before receiving a great pass from Uvis Balinskis. Verhaeghe then tiptoed around Wedgewood before hitting him with a backhand.

Nashville finally got it with 6:08 left in the second when Stamkos covered a puck over Bobrovsky from the left circle.

But Verhaeghe’s second goal of the night – this one with 28 seconds left in the second – gave Florida a 5-1 lead. That goal came on a two-on-one when Barkov did the heavy lifting with a perfect pass to Verhaeghe, who lifted the puck over Wedgewood’s blocker.

After the loss, the Panthers used their fourth line for a power play, and that led to a goal from Nosek when the puck went off his skates and into the net.

Parssinen’s power play goal made it 6-2 with 8:09 left, but it was too late for Nashville.

–Field level media