Jonathan Marchessault's hat trick helped the Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 7-0 on Saturday.
The Blackhawks have the most points in the Western Conference and are a Stanley Cup contender. In this game they were no match for the Panthers however. Florida sits 33-30-11 after the win, while Chicago owns a 48-21-6 record.
After finding the back of the net twice in Florida's win on Thursday, Marchessault was right back at it in this one. The 26-year old added another three goals, and now has a team-leading 28 goals on the season. The hat trick was the first of Marchessault's career, and the team's second of the season.
Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau had assists on Marchessault's first goal, which came at the 11:40 mark of the second period. That score was just the beginning of a three-goal second period for the team. The Panthers remained active in the final period with four more goals as well.
At the 4:59 mark of the third period, Marchessault added his second goal of the day without the benefit of an assist. Later in the period, Marchessault completed the hat trick with help from Vincent Trocheck and Huberdeau.
Prior to Marchessault's initial goal, Barkov put Florida on the board first with his 21st goal of the season. Barkov's score came with only 17 seconds off the clock in the second period, and it had help on it from Jason Demers and Huberdeau.
Huberdeau also scored his own goal during the active period, while Florida was on a power play. Huberdeau's seventh goal of the season had an assist on it from Barkov and Keith Yandle
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Nick Bjugstad kept Florida's barrage of goals going in the third period, with his sixth of the season. Colton Sceviour and Mark Pysyk both had assists on Florida's sixth goal of the game.
Reilly Smith added the last goal of the game for the Panthers, with his 13th of the season. Trocheck helped out on this goal as well.
There was some bad news for Florida in this one, as Jaromir Jagr left the game early with a lower body injury. Jagr's availability for the next game is not known at this time.
Florida will begin a four-game road trip on Monday in Buffalo against the Sabres at 7:00 p.m.
