SUNRISE, Fla. -- Anton Lundell scored a hat trick, and Seth Jones had three points to help the Florida Panthers hand the Winnipeg Jets their eighth straight loss, 5-2 at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.
Lundell entered Friday with one goal in 13 games this season.
“It has been one of those hard stretches,” said Lundell, who recorded his first NHL hat trick in his 372nd game. “I felt like my game has been pretty good, we create a lot of chances.
It just felt like nothing is going in. Just kept fighting and believing that, at some point, I’m going to be rewarded a little bit.”
Jones, who had a goal and two assists, had his fifth multipoint game in October. With 18 points (two goals, 16 assists), he tied Keith Yandle for the most points in a month by a defenseman in Florida history.
“Feels good. We knew this was an important one to carry the momentum from the last few games of the trip,” said Jones, whose team was coming off a 2-2-0 road trip.
Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (8-4-2), who won their third straight game and sixth in their past eight. They defeated the Jets for the second consecutive game, having won 5-1 at Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Eetu Luostarinen had two assists, and Akira Schmid made 22 saves for his third straight win and fifth in his past six starts.
“Akira has just gotten better and better in every game he has played for us,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It was a good night.”
Kyle Connor and Morgan Barron scored for the Jets (4-7-3), who are 0-6-2 in their past eight. Nico Daws made 33 saves.
Daws was making his first start with the Jets since being acquired as part of the trade that sent goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 23.
He made his debut with Winnipeg on Thursday, making nine saves in relief in a 6-4 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“You don’t like the ending with the score
but we battled,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “That is a lot closer to how we need to play for 60 minutes.
There were a lot of 50-50 puck battles that we came out on the right side of that we had not done the last time we faced Florida or the first two periods in Tampa. But, now, we have to get over the hump.
Find a way. Keep that work ethic, keep that compete going and find those two points.”
Florida took a 1-0 lead at 18:15 of the first period. Reinhart got the puck down low on the left side and moved toward the net along the goal line looking to pass, but instead shot and beat Daws to the far side.
Lundell made it 2-0 at 2:38 of the second period. After his pass attempt on the rush was blocked, the puck came back to him for a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to the glove side.
“You want to produce,” Lundell said. “You want to help the team by scoring, too.
Everybody wants to score.”
The Jets cut it to 2-1 at 9:51, capitalizing on a 5-on-3 power play that resulted from Dmitry Kulikov being called for delay of game and the Panthers then unsuccessfully challenging the call. Connor cut past Jones in the left circle toward the slot and scored with a high wrist shot inside the right post with six seconds left on the power play.
Jones pushed the lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 15:24, scoring with a one-timer from the top of the slot off a Reinhart pass from below the goal line.
Barron then pulled Winnipeg within 3-2 at 8:46 of the third period. He took the puck off the right wall, made strong move toward the net and shot from the bottom of the right circle for his first goal of the season.
“We have to stop the bleeding at some point. There are no moral victories right now,” Barron said.
“We have to find a way to come out on top. The schedule is not getting any easier.
We’re going to have to regroup, and put together a good 60-minute effort (Sunday) in Carolina.”
Lundell made it 4-2 at 13:33 by poking in a rebound at the edge of the crease, then completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 18:21 for the 5-2 final.
“I think we have really come together,” Jones said.
NOTES: Lundell’s hat trick is the Panthers’ fifth this season, which is tied with 2020-21, 2019-20 and 1999-00 for their second-most in a season. The Panthers had six hat tricks in their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season of 2021-22.
Matthew Tkachuk (16 assists) and Jones became the ninth set of teammates in NHL history to each have 15 assists in a single October and just the third forward-defenseman combination. They join Mario Lemieux (22) and Paul Coffey (18) with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988 as well as Brian Leetch (16) and Darren Turcotte (15) of the New York Rangers in 1990.
Jones also became the fifth American defenseman in NHL history to have 15 assists in a single October. The others: Quinn Hughes (16 in 2026), Adam Fox (16 in 2026), John Carlson (16 in 2019), and Leetch (16 in 1990; 15 in 1991).
