Carter Verhaeghe tallies hat trick in Panthers’ gutsy OT win over Stars

DALLAS (AP) — Aaron Ekblad scored with 9.3 seconds left in overtime after his apparent winner moments earlier was wiped out by a replay review, and the Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Saturday night.

Carter Verhaeghe got the Panthers to overtime with a hat trick and they snapped a three-game losing streak that marked their longest of the season. Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves in the first of back-to-back games between the teams in Dallas.

Denis Gurianov, John Klingberg and Joel L’Esperance scored for the Stars, who were coming off Thursday’s victory over NHL-leading Tampa Bay but haven’t won consecutive games since opening the season 4-0-0. Anton Khudobin stopped 24 shots in his third straight loss (0-1-2).

Ekblad scored on a backhand after being denied a goal with 47.8 seconds remaining in the extra period when a video review determined the play was offside.

Verhaeghe took the team lead with 15 goals and picked up the scoring slack as Florida played without two of its most productive forwards because of injury: captain Aleksander Barkov (13 goals, 37 points) and Patric Hornqvist (12 goals, 25 points).

Verhaeghe scored 24 seconds in on the game’s first shot on goal and added his second late in first period on the power play after Gurianov and Klingberg had given Dallas a 2-1 lead.

Verhaeghe stole the puck from defenseman Miro Heiskanen in Dallas’ defensive zone while killing a penalty and whistled a wrist shot from the left circle to the upper far corner at 17:40 of the second period.

Joel Hanley had two assists for the Stars.

Florida is 14-0-1 when leading after two periods, while Dallas is 0-10-6 when trailing through two.

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Sunday’s game will be the fourth of a five-game homestand for the Stars and the fourth of a five-game road trip for the Panthers.