Brady Tkachuk Hat Trick Caps NHL Night of Overtime Finishes

Three of Thursday night's six completed NHL games went past regulation, and Brady Tkachuk owned the best of them. The Florida captain scored every Panthers goal in a 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks in Sunrise, his second hat trick in two games.

Panthers 3, Canucks 2, overtime

Vancouver scored the first two goals of a game for the first time this season. Liam Ohgren opened the scoring at 7:23 of the first period, and Elias Pettersson made it 2-0 at 17:06, with Filip Chytil picking up an assist for his first point in 364 days. The second period passed without a goal, and Leevi Merilainen held Florida off the board for more than 50 minutes.

Tkachuk broke through at 11:11 of the third, cut the lead to one, then tied the game at 19:47, with 13 seconds left in regulation. He finished the job at 2:23 of overtime, taking a pass from Seth Jones. The three goals gave him six over his past two games. Vancouver has lost all five games on its east coast road trip, with one game left, a Saturday matinee at Tampa Bay.

Sabres 5, Maple Leafs 4, overtime

Toronto got a natural hat trick from Kirill Marchenko and still lost at home. Auston Matthews scored at 2:24 of the first, Jack Quinn answered at 3:35, and Marchenko put Toronto ahead at 13:10 on a power play. Quinn tied it again at 2:41 of the second. Marchenko then scored at 11:13 and 16:51 to build a 4-2 lead.

Buffalo scored twice in 2 minutes and 11 seconds in the third. Dennis Gilbert made it 4-3 at 10:05, and Mattias Samuelsson tied it at 12:16. Owen Power won it at 3:14 of overtime. Quinn finished with two goals and two assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves for Buffalo, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 for Toronto. Both teams came into the game at 3-3-1. Toronto also lost John Tavares, who left the game after a heavy crash in the third period. The team had given no update on him by the end of the night.

Devils 7, Rangers 1

New Jersey scored four times in the second period and buried its rival in Newark. Evan Rodrigues opened the scoring with 30 seconds left in the first. Luke Hughes struck 18 seconds into the second, Nico Hischier made it 3-0 just past the four minute mark, and Arseny Gritsyuk scored 31 seconds later to end goalie Dylan Garand's night after four goals on 13 shots. Hughes added his second late in the second. Stefan Noesen pushed it to 6-0 early in the third before Pavel Dorofeyev spoiled the shutout on a power play. Cody Glass closed the scoring. Nico Daws needed only 18 saves. The Rangers had not given up more than three goals in a game all season before Thursday.

Senators 2, Islanders 1, shootout

Ottawa had two goals wiped out by video review in the first period before Matias Maccelli put New York ahead with 11.2 seconds left in the period. Ridly Greig tied it with 4:17 left in the second, finishing a long breakout play that ran from Artem Zub to Warren Foegele. Nobody scored again through overtime. Shane Pinto, Ottawa's third skater, scored the only goal of the shootout, and Linus Ullmark stopped Simon Holmstrom to end it. Ullmark made 20 saves. Semyon Varlamov made 18 saves for the Islanders in his search for a first win since Nov 14, 2024, after missing last season following double partial knee replacements. Ottawa has won six of its first eight games.

The rest of the early slate

Tampa Bay beat Seattle 4-3 in overtime, the third overtime finish of the night, and Detroit beat Philadelphia 2-1 to leave the Flyers still looking for their first win of the season at 0-6. The late games in the Central Division and the two western games were still on the schedule when these finals went in, and they will be covered in the morning roundup.