Mason Marchment, Anton Lundell enter Florida Panthers record book in rout of Blue Jackets
.JPG "Florida Panthers players celebrate their goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)")
At one point, Mason Marchment said he lost count of how many points he had racked up on Monday.
Considering how frequently he was involved in the Florida Panthers’ scoring onslaught, that’s quite understandable.
He’ll definitely remember the final tally as he found his place in Panthers history.
Marchment had six points in the Panthers’ 8-4 rout of the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. That ties the franchise’s single-game record set by Olli Jokinen on March 17, 2007. He scored two goals, striking on the opening shift of the first and third periods, and assists on four of the six goals that came in between.
“A hell of a night,” Marchment said afterward. “I’ll never forget it, for sure.”
He wasn’t alone in landing in the Panthers’ record book on Monday.
Center Anton Lundell’s five assists also tied Aleksander Barkov’s single-game franchise record. The five points are also the most ever scored by a Panthers rookie in one game.
Oh, and Sam Reinhart — the third piece of the line that features Marchment and Lundell — also scored a hat trick on Monday, the fifth of his career and first with the Panthers, en route to a four-point night
So, to recap: Five goals and 10 assists from Florida’s third line.
In the 10:13 the trio was on the ice Monday in five-on-five situations, Florida outscored Columbus 6-0 and had a 10-1 edge in shots on goal, 10-2 advantage in scoring chances and 5-0 lead in high-danger chances.
“They put a show on,” Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “The puck was just following them around there. They’re a lot of fun to watch. Some beautiful goals. It’s kind of fun to watch them kind of Globetrot around. It was great.”
The performance wrapped up one of the most successful Januaries in franchise history. The Panthers went 12-2-1 in their 15 games this month and are now 32-9-5 on the season. The 12 wins are a franchise record for a calendar month, and their 69 points on the season are the most in the NHL.
They scored 74 goals in those 15 games, recording at least five goals on eight separate occasions.
On Monday, it wasn’t their superstars piling up the points. Barkov scored his team-high-tying 21st goal in the first period on the power play, with Jonathan Huberdeau getting his NHL-leading 46th assist and 63rd point in the process.
But that was merely a footnote in the game.
On Monday, the Panthers can point to that trio of Marchment, Lundell and Reinhart for the offensive spark.
It began on the opening shift. Lundell forced a takeaway in the offensive zone and sent a pass to Marchment in the slot. Marchment’s wrist shot beat Elvis Merzlikins. 1-0 Panthers 32 seconds into the game.
“We got the team going,” Lundell said. “We got our line going. We knew we had 59 minutes to do some nice plays there.”
That they did.
From there, it was Reinhart scoring three of Florida’s next four goals, with Lundell and Marchment each assisting on all three, to boost Florida’s lead to 5-2 about four-and-a-half minutes into the second period.
But the early production from Reinhart, Marchment and Lundell was nearly for naught.
A pair of sloppy turnovers midway through the second period allowed the Blue Jackets (20-22-1) to score twice and cut Florida’s lead to 5-4 with 8:15 left in the second period.
But two goals in the span of 15 seconds — first Owen Tippett, then MacKenzie Weegar — pushed the Panthers’ lead up to 7-4 at the end of the second period. Marchment’s second goal and record-tying sixth point came 27 seconds into the third period. Marchment now has 23 points in 21 games played this season.
“They recognized they were getting a little sloppy and leaving pucks in bad areas and really hanging [goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy] out to dry a little bit,” Brunette said. “The maturity of this group over the years has been fun to watch. They recognized they needed to have a couple big shifts to get back us back in control of the game and they did. I liked the way we played in the third and how we closed it out.”
Lundell’s five points, meanwhile, are the most ever by a Panthers rookie in a single game. The 20-year-old had five assists — two primary assists, three secondary assists — to match a feat only previously accomplished by Barkov in Panthers franchise history.
Four other Panthers rookies have posted four-point nights — Jesse Belanger (Jan. 19, 1994), Mark Parrish (Oct. 30, 1998), Huberdeau (Feb. 21, 2013) and Juho Lammikko (Nov. 19, 2018) — but none had ever gotten to five until Lundell, who now has 32 points on the season and is a dark horse for the Calder Trophy given annually to the NHL’s top rookie.
“It’s crazy,” Reinhart said. “He’s a little more mature than most 20 year olds. Just his composure on the ice has been a big factor for us throughout the lineup.”
Up next
The Panthers face the New York Rangers on Tuesday in their final game before the All-Star Break.
Florida’s next game after that isn’t until Feb. 16 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 9:37 PM.
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