# Anton Lundell's First Hat Trick Powers Panthers to 5-2 Win Over Jets Source: SportsBriefly (https://sportsbriefly.com) Canonical URL: https://sportsbriefly.com/en/other/anton-lundell-s-first-hat-trick-powers-panthers-to-5-2-win-over-jets-2026-10-31 Language: en Published: 2026-10-31T15:30:44.087+00:00 Updated: 2026-10-31T15:30:44.178774+00:00 > Anton Lundell scored his first career hat trick and Seth Jones capped a record-tying October as Florida beat Winnipeg 5-2 in Sunrise, extending the Panthers' winning streak to three and the Jets' losing streak to eight. ## TL;DR - Anton Lundell scored his first career NHL hat trick in Florida's 5-2 win over Winnipeg. - Seth Jones had a goal and two assists, reaching 18 October points and tying Keith Yandle's franchise defenseman mark for a month. - Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist; Akira Schmid made 22 saves. - Florida won its third straight and second straight over Winnipeg; the Jets fell to 0-6-2 in their past eight. - In the Friday roundup, New Jersey beat Vegas 5-2 and Calgary beat Seattle 6-2. ## Key points - Anton Lundell scored his first career NHL hat trick in Florida's 5-2 win over Winnipeg. - Seth Jones had a goal and two assists, reaching 18 October points and tying Keith Yandle's franchise defenseman mark for a month. - Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist; Akira Schmid made 22 saves. - Florida won its third straight and second straight over Winnipeg; the Jets fell to 0-6-2 in their past eight. - In the Friday roundup, New Jersey beat Vegas 5-2 and Calgary beat Seattle 6-2. ## A night Lundell will not forget ![Archive photo: Seth Jones skating for the Florida Panthers against Vancouver in November 2025, not from the 30 October 2026 game.](https://dcwdppdscydjemfvownz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/api/1793460635288-0sqco0-other-inside1-2026-10-31-evening.jpg) Anton Lundell had waited all season for the puck to start going in. On Friday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, it went in three times. Lundell scored his first career NHL hat trick, Seth Jones capped a remarkable October with a goal and two assists, and the Florida Panthers beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 for their third straight victory. The win was Florida's second in a row over Winnipeg and its sixth in eight games, lifting the Panthers to 8-4-2. Winnipeg fell to 4-7-3 and to 0-6-2 in its past eight games. Lundell entered the game with one goal in 13 games this season. "It has been one of those hard stretches," Lundell said. "I felt like my game has been pretty good, we create a lot of chances. It just felt like nothing is going in. Just kept fighting and believing that, at some point, I'm going to be rewarded a little bit." ## How Florida pulled away ![Archive photo: Amerant Bank Arena during a Panthers game in November 2025, not from the 30 October 2026 game against Winnipeg.](https://dcwdppdscydjemfvownz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/api/1793460640268-n4oe8z-other-inside2-2026-10-31-evening.jpg) Sam Reinhart opened the scoring at 18:15 of the first period, beating Winnipeg goaltender Nico Daws from down low on the left side. Lundell doubled the lead at 2:38 of the second period, firing a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to the glove side after his pass attempt on the rush was blocked and the puck came back to him. Winnipeg answered on a 5-on-3 power play. Kyle Connor scored at 9:51 of the second period, cutting past Jones toward the slot and beating Schmid with a high wrist shot inside the right post, with six seconds left on the advantage. Jones restored the two-goal lead at 15:24, scoring on a power-play one-timer from the top of the slot off a Reinhart pass from below the goal line. Morgan Barron pulled Winnipeg within 3-2 at 8:46 of the third period, driving from the right wall toward the net for his first goal of the season. Lundell ended the comeback bid, poking in a rebound at the edge of the crease at 13:33 and completing the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 18:21. Akira Schmid made 22 saves for his third straight win, while Daws stopped 33 shots in his first start for Winnipeg since being acquired from New Jersey. Eetu Luostarinen had two assists for Florida. ## A breakthrough, not just a box score Lundell's first goal was a shooter's goal, clean and confident. His second came from going to the net and staying with the play. His third was a closer's finish that removed any doubt. Together, they told the story of a player whose process had not changed even while his finishing had deserted him. It was also Florida's fifth hat trick of the season, tied with the 2020-21, 2019-20 and 1999-00 seasons for the second-most in a single season in franchise history. Only the Presidents' Trophy-winning 2021-22 team, with six, has had more. ## Jones closes a record-tying October If Lundell owned the finish, Jones owned the month. His goal and two assists gave him 18 points in October, two goals and 16 assists, tying Keith Yandle for the most points in a month by a defenseman in Florida history. It was Jones's fifth multipoint game in October. Jones has done it while playing in all situations. His one-timer was a reminder of his shot, but his two assists mattered too: he is starting plays as well as finishing them. Reinhart, who had a goal and an assist, fed Jones for the 3-1 goal. Matthew Tkachuk, with 16 assists, and Jones also became the ninth set of teammates in NHL history to each record at least 15 assists in a single October, and only the third forward-defenseman combination to do it, joining Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey with Pittsburgh in 1988, and Brian Leetch and Darren Turcotte with the New York Rangers in 1990. ## What it means for both teams For Florida, the sweep of the home-and-home matters: the Panthers had already won 5-1 at Winnipeg on Tuesday, then won the return game after answering two Winnipeg pushes. For Winnipeg, the problems are becoming familiar. The Jets battled, as coach Scott Arniel noted, winning more 50-50 puck battles than they had in the previous meeting with Florida. But battling is not the same as finishing. Barron put it bluntly: there are no moral victories right now, and the schedule is not getting easier. Winnipeg's next test is a 60-minute effort on Sunday in Carolina. The franchise record for consecutive losses is 10, reached three times, in 2000, 1994 and 1980. At eight straight losses, the Jets are close enough that every next game carries extra weight. ## Around the NHL on Friday Elsewhere, the New Jersey Devils beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2 in Las Vegas. Arseny Gritsyuk and Jack Hughes each scored twice, Luke Hughes also scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves to improve to 2-0-0 with New Jersey since being acquired from the Jets on October 23. Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev scored 90 seconds apart late in the first period for Vegas. In Calgary, the Flames beat the Seattle Kraken 6-2. Matt Coronato scored in his first career four-point game, Joel Farabee had a goal and two assists, and Morgan Frost and Matvei Gridin each collected a goal and an assist. Dustin Wolf made 20 saves, while Seattle starter Philipp Grubauer was pulled after allowing four goals on 14 shots. For Florida, the night belonged to Lundell and Jones. One ended a personal drought in the loudest possible way. The other ended October in the franchise record book. Mentions: Anton Lundell, Seth Jones, Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, Keith Yandle, Akira Schmid, Nico Daws, Kyle Connor, Morgan Barron, Eetu Luostarinen, Paul Maurice, Scott Arniel, Matthew Tkachuk, New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights, Calgary Flames, Seattle Kraken, Connor Hellebuyck, Jack Hughes, Matt Coronato, Amerant Bank Arena ## Sources - [nhl.com](https://www.nhl.com/news/winnipeg-jets-florida-panthers-game-recap-october-30-2026) - [reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/sports/nhl-roundup-anton-lundells-first-hat-trick-powers-panthers-past-jets--flm-2026-10-31/) - [tsn.ca](https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/lundell-scores-hat-trick-jones-caps-record-month-and-panthers-send-jets-to-eighth-straight-loss/)