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Versteeg's hat trick leads Panthers past Jets

Nov 11, 2011 - 6:12 AM Winnipeg, MB (Sports Network) - Kris Versteeg notched the first hat trick of his career and added an assist as the Florida Panthers took a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre.

Mike Santorelli and Jason Garrison added goals for the Panthers, who have won their past two games. Brian Campbell added three assists while Jose Theodore stopped 25 shots in the win.

"Nice to get that and it's nice to get it in a win," said Versteeg. "Nice to get both of these road wins and now it's back home for us."

Tim Stapleton and Andrew Ladd each scored for the Jets, who have dropped their past four games. Ondrej Pavelec gave up four goals on 15 shots over two periods of play, while Peter Mannino stopped all four shots he faced in the third period.

"If you want to win in this game you have to play all 60 minutes as hard as you can," said Pavelec. "Obviously I didn't do that tonight. The guys battled in the third, but it's hard to come back from four goals down."

Versteeg's first goal of the game came 7:14 in when Versteeg banged home the rebound of a Tomas Fleischmann shot.

A little over 10 minutes later on the power play, Versteeg made it a 2-0 game when he received a feed in the slot from Fleischmann, snapped a shot on net that was stopped then snuck home his own rebound.

"They came out with a ton of energy and they really came at us hard. We absorbed that and then we score that first goal and then the game kind of settles down," Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen said. "I just liked our overall game tonight."

Florida made it a 3-0 game 4:53 into the second when Garrison one-timed home a Versteeg pass for his sixth goal of the season.

With under two minutes to play in the second, the Panthers took a 4-0 advantage as Campbell threw a shot on net that was stopped and Santorelli used a turn-around shot from the low left circle to get it past Pavelec.

Winnipeg got on the board at the 2:28 mark of the third as Stapleton jammed in a loose puck at the left side during a scrum in front on the power play and Ladd made it a 4-2 game three minutes later with his fourth of the season.

However, that was as close as it got and Versteeg capped his hat trick with an empty-netter with 1:19 to play.

"We were better in the third, but we didn't deserve to win the game," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "We didn't play very well. You can't win when your players don't play to their potential."

Game Notes

Florida hosts Philadelphia on Sunday...Winnipeg plays at Columbus on Saturday...The only other meeting this season between these teams saw Winnipeg take a 4-3 shootout win in Florida on October 31...Florida went 2-for-5 on the power play while WInnipeg was 1-for-3.