Brady Tkachuk's second straight hat trick rescues Panthers in overtime

Panthers 3, Canucks 2 (OT). Florida spent 50 minutes looking like a team waiting for somebody else to fix it, and then Brady Tkachuk decided he'd handle it personally.

Down 2-0 with under nine minutes to play, the cats got three straight goals from Tkachuk, the last two with 12.8 seconds left in regulation and 2:23 into overtime. That's his second consecutive natural hat trick, two nights after the one in Columbus, and it moves Florida to 4-2-2.

How it went

Vancouver scored on its very first shot, when Liam Öhgren buried a snap shot from the slot at 7:23 after a Florida clearing attempt failed. Elias Pettersson, the defenseman, made it 2-0 at 17:06 of the first during four-on-four play, with Filip Chytil setting it up in his season debut.

The second period was all Florida except on the scoreboard. The cats led 24-11 in shots after 40 minutes and had nothing to show for it, largely because Leevi Meriläinen kept turning away everything on his way to 36 saves.

Tkachuk finally broke through at 11:11 of the third, one-timing an Aaron Ekblad feed. Florida pulled Akira Schmid with 2:30 left, and Tkachuk jammed a bouncing puck past Meriläinen from the right circle with 12.8 seconds to go. In the three-on-three, Seth Jones and Sam Reinhart worked it to him, and he beat Meriläinen low to the glove side.

Three things from Sunrise:

1. Six goals in two nights. Tkachuk had zero goals through his first six games as a Panther, per NHL data, and he has six in his last two. Only Pavel Bure and Noel Acciari had back-to-back hat tricks for this franchise before him.

He also played 19:59 tonight, up 3.7 minutes from Columbus by our count. When a coach hands the hot hand three extra minutes, he's telling you exactly who the room is riding.

2. Seth Jones is running the back end. He assisted on both the tying goal and the winner and led the team with 26:16 of ice time. By our count, all eight of his assists this season have come in the last three games. He's the one calming down the breakout while everybody else is squeezing the stick.

3. The first period can't keep happening. Vancouver arrived winless in five with a minus-14 goal differential over that stretch, by our count, and Florida still spotted them two goals. The Canucks managed 17 shots all night, so Schmid only had to be solid, and he was, with 15 saves.

Ferda play of the night:

Aaron Ekblad. He blocked two shots and threw two hits across 22:21 on a night the defense had to keep the deficit at two. Then he found Tkachuk for the goal that finally woke the building up. That is the whole job description, beginning to end.

Pabs' read

I've watched this franchise lose games exactly like this for three decades: outshoot a team 39-17, run into a hot goalie, and drive home on the Sawgrass with nothing. This group refused, and on Vamos Gatos night it finally gave Sunrise its first home win of the season, by our count. Dale.

But don't let the finish hide the start. Chasing two goals at home against a club finishing a six-game road trip is how you lose points you should bank in October. Brady can't bail them out every night. Clean up the first periods and this team starts stacking wins.

Next game

Seattle comes to Sunrise on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. ET, and it's Pink in the Rink night at Amerant Bank Arena.