Another Acciari hat trick, another big offensive night, another Florida Panthers win

Noel Acciari glided down the ice with about eight-and-a-half minutes left in the second period as he prepared to take his first career penalty shot.

The game was already well in the Florida Panthers’ favor as they held a five-goal lead on a Dallas Stars team fresh off an overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.

But with that penalty shot came a chance for Acciari to have another milestone night.

“Don’t trip. Don’t fall,” Acciari said. “... It was a bit nerve-wracking. Don’t think. Just go.”

Acciari weaved to his left after taking the puck from center ice, tapped it with his stick a couple times and he centered in front of the net before narrowly sticking a wrist shot past Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin.

“I followed that puck as soon as it got off my stick to see if it squeezed through,” Acciari said. “Just relieved.”

Acciari did it again.

Two games. Two hat tricks.

This time, though, the 28-year-old needed less than four minutes in the middle of that second period Friday to pull off the feat and help the Panthers cruise to a 7-4 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday.

And as a reminder: Acciari never had a multi-goal game in the first 209 games of his NHL career before putting three in the back of the net against the Ottawa Senators on Monday and then repeating the feat on Friday to close out the Panthers’ franchise-long nine-game homestand.

Six goals in two games after just five total in his first 29 this season.

“He’s the best guy in the world, so to see him score back to back hat tricks, it couldn’t happen to a better guy,” center Vincent Trocheck said. “It was a lot of fun to watch him turn into Noel Gretzky out there. Hopefully it continues.”

With his two hat tricks, Acciari has put himself into rare standing in Panthers history.

▪ The 3:59 span from the first goal to the third is the shortest in Panthers history.

▪ Acciari is just the second player in franchise history with back-to-back hat tricks, joining Pave Bure (Feb. 10 and Feb. 14, 2001).

▪ He is just the sixth player with multiple hat tricks in a season for the Panthers. The others: Aleksander Barkov (2018-2019), David Booth (2008-2009), Olli Jokinen (three in 2006-07), Bure (three times; four in 2000-2001; four in 1999-2000; and two in 1998-1999) and Ray Sheppard (three in 1996-1997).

“He has the magic touch right now,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said.

And his three-goal showing on Monday came against a Stars team that came into Friday allowing an NHL-low 2.31 goals per game.

Prior to Friday, the Stars had given up more than three goals just six times this season and never more than five.

Acciari’s linemates Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau assisted on each of his first two goals, a tip-in just in front of the net and a wrist shot from the left circle within 32 seconds of each other (12:34 and 12:02 left in the second period).

“I just put pucks on net,” Acciari said, “and good things happened.”

He clinched the hat trick on the penalty shot with 8:35 left in the period, one that sent the bench into a frenzy.

“I was jacked up,” Trocheck said. “I couldn’t contain myself. Me and Huby were talking that we were going to try to feed him backdoor tap-ins the rest of the game if he didn’t score. He’s been lights out these past couple games.”

But it wasn’t just Acciari who had the big night for the Panthers (17-12-5).

His second-period hat trick capped a five-goal second period, marking the second consecutive game Florida has recorded a handful of goals in the middle period. Huberdeau and Anton Stralman gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead after the first period. Trocheck and Colton Sceviour made Florida’s lead 4-1 less than three minutes into the second period before Acciari went on his scoring flurry. The Stars pulled starting goaltender Ben Bishop after Acciari’s second goal.

Huberdeau recorded his second consecutive four-point game (one point, three assists) to give him 404 career points, 15 shy of tying Olli Jokinen’s franchise record. He had a career-best four assists on Monday. Barkov had two assists. Ten Florida players either recorded a goal or an assist.

“That’s how we win games,” Huberdeau said. “It’s nice to see all four lines going and a lot of guys getting on the scoresheet. That’s what you want to see.”

The Panthers outscored Ottawa and Dallas 13-5 in their past two games after scoring just four total goals in losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning (2-1), New York Islanders (3-1) and Boston Bruins (4-2).

Denis Gurianov opened scoring for the Stars (20-13-4) in the first period, Tyler Seguin had goals in the second and third, and Jamie Benn cut Dallas’ deficit to three goals with about seven minutes left in regulation.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 of 31 shots in the win and posted a .943 save percentage in his seven starts over the homestand (230 for 244). Friday was the only time in seven starts over the homestand that Bobrovsky gave up more than three goals in a game.

The Panthers went 5-4-0 in the nine-game homestand.

Up next

The Panthers now head on the road to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. They close out the calendar year with home games against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 28 and Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 29 before facing the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road Dec. 31.