Brady Tkachuk's Hat Trick Outlasts a Busy Meriläinen
Florida spent the night in Vancouver's end of the rink on the shot clock, and it still needed overtime to get past Leevi Meriläinen. The Panthers outshot the Canucks 39-17, and Meriläinen stopped 36 of them, including 15 of 16 high-danger chances, the shots from the most dangerous areas.
Brady Tkachuk did the damage with a hat trick on 6 shots, and Matthew Tkachuk added an assist on the same top line. Sam Reinhart put 5 shots on goal, set one up, and rang one off the iron, as did Brady. Florida hit the post and crossbar once each.
Florida's chances were worth 3.67 expected goals, or how many goals they should produce, to Vancouver's 2.63. The Canucks squeezed real value out of few looks: Liam Ohgren scored from the third line, with Linus Karlsson assisting, and Elias Pettersson added the other goal.
The result still stretches Vancouver's losing streak to five at 2-6-0, while Florida moves to 3-2-2.
