When Matt Tkachuk was traded from the Calgary Flames to the Florida Panthers on July 22, there were high expectations. He just had 104 points and was a sizzling +57 during the 2021-22 National Hockey League regular season. Tkachuk was also traded for Jonathan Huberdeau, Cole Schwindt and MacKenzie Weegar, along with a first round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.
On Tuesday, Tkachuk had his best game in a Panthers uniform. He had three goals and one assist for four points in a 5-3 Panthers win over the Arizona Coyotes.
Tkachuk’s hat trick with the Panthers
Tkachuk, a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, opened the scoring at 1:09 of the first period from Aleksander Barkov of Tampere, Finland, and Gustav Forsling of Linkoping, Sweden. He then scored from defenseman Josh Mahura of St. Albert, Alberta at 10:37 of the second period to put the Panthers up 3-2. Tkachuk then closed out the scoring with a power-play marker from Sam Reinhart of West Vancouver, British Columbia and goaltender Spencer Knight of Stamford, Connecticut with 31 seconds left in the second period. For Knight, it was his first assist of his NHL career.
Tkachuk’s assist was on a game-winning goal by Canadian Olympic gold medalist Eric Staal of Thunder Bay, Ontario at 16:01 of the second period. The goal put the Panthers up 4-3 at the time. Ryan Lomberg of Richmond Hill, Ontario had the other assist. Staal meanwhile won a gold medal for Canada at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Tkachuk’s three prior hat tricks
Tkachuk’s three prior hat tricks have been with the Calgary Flames. The first was on March 10, 2019 in a 6-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. The second was on April 12, 2022 in a 5-3 Flames win over the Seattle Kraken, and the third was on May 18, 2022 in a 9-6 Flames playoff win over the Edmonton Oilers. The playoff hat trick came in game one of the second round.
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