Noel Acciari leads Panthers past Stars with 2nd consecutive hat trick
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) —Noel Acciari had a simple approach to his first career penalty shot.
“Don't trip, don't fall,” Acciari said.
He stayed upright — and completed his second straight hat trick in the Florida Panthers’ 7-4 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Acciari had the natural hat trick in a team-record 3:59 span, pushing his season goals total to a career-high 11, and also had an assist in Florida’s five-goal second period.
The 28-year-old former Providence player, acquired in free agency after four seasons with the Boston Bruins, began the run at 7:26 of the second and struck again at 7:58. He then slipped the penalty shot through goalie Anton Khudobin’s pads with 8:35 left in the period to make it 7-1. Acciari got the short-handed penalty shot after he was hooked by John Klingberg on a breakaway.
“I don't do too many of those. It was a bit nerve-wracking,” Acciari said. “I followed that puck as soon as it went off my stick to see if it squeezed through, and I saw it and was just relieved.”
Acciari had his first career three-goal game Tuesday night in a 6-1 victory over Ottawa, with the Panthers also scoring five goals in the second period of that game.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and three assists for a second consecutive four-point outing, and Vincent Trocheck added a goal and two helpers. Anton Stralman and Colton Sceviour also scored, Aleksander Barkov had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves.
Acciari has six goals and seven points in two games on a line with Huberdeau and Trocheck.
“It feels just as good (the second time),” Acciari said about the hat trick. “As a line we were playing well together ... playing with (Huberdeau and Trocheck) is a lot of fun. “You just have to get open and they find you. I just put pucks on net and good things happen.”
The Panthers were 5-4-0 on their franchise-record, nine-game homestand and had 10 players with points on the scoresheet Friday.
"It's crazy. I've never seen (back-to-back hat tricks). Our whole line is clicking right now,” Huberdeau said.
Tyler Seguin scored twice for Dallas, Denis Gurianov and Jamie Benn also scored, and Corey Perry had two assists. Ben Bishop allowed six goals on in 20 shots in 27:58, and Khudobin stopped 12 shots in relief.
A night after rallying and escaping with a 4-3 overtime win over Tampa Bay despite being outshot 48-20, Dallas again appeared to be outmatched from the start.
“You probably get what you deserve most nights,” Dallas forward Joe Pavelski said. “(Khudobin) had a big performance, but we probably didn’t deserve what we got the other night. Tonight, what we got was probably what we deserved.”
Interim coach Rick Bowness said his team wasn’t ready to play from the start.
“This is a league that if you’re not ready to compete, regardless of who the team is, they can embarrass you,” Bowness said. “And we got embarrassed tonight by a highly skilled team.”
NOTES: Pavelski played his 1,000th career game. ... Florida’s Pavel Bure was the last Panther to have back-to-back hat tricks, accomplishing the feat in February 2001. ... Dallas is 5-2-1 in its last eight.
UP NEXT
Stars: Host Calgary on Sunday night.
Panthers: At Carolina on Saturday night.
