Penrith’s mid-season resurgence is now in full swing after extending their NRL winning streak to three with a 38-0 whitewash of Canterbury on Sunday.

A month after dropping to second last spot, the Panthers turned in arguably their most impressive effort of the season at ANZ Stadium to inject life into their premiership tilt.

Replacement hooker Mitch Rein scored twice in his first appearance of the season, while skipper Matt Moylan made a strong first impression at five-eighth.

Winger Josh Mansour also made a successful return from a knee reconstruction, racking up a game-high 195 metres and adding a try on fulltime for good measure.

For the Bulldogs, who crashed to their fourth straight defeat, their frustrations reached a flashpoint in the second half when Craig Garvey was sin-binned for punching.

The 38-point thrashing equalled the Bulldogs’ heaviest defeat under coach Des Hasler, which was a sorry way to celebrate becoming the tenth coach to 350 NRL games.

In front of a crowd of 11,232, the Panthers led 16-0 at halftime and then ruthlessly piled on the points through Waqa Blake, Nathan Cleary, Rein and Mansour in the second half.

The Bulldogs, who were without captain James Graham and Brett Morris, simply had no answer for the Panthers’ speed at the ruck, which resulted in a 9-1 linebreak count.

By halftime, the Panthers held a three-try lead on the back of a dominant performance in the middle of the field, Mansour racking up 142 metres alone in the first period.

They were helped by an ill-disciplined Bulldogs outfit that completed just over half their sets compared to the Panthers’ 20 of 21, and missed 21 tackles to Penrith’s seven.

Corey Harawira-Naera came up with first points from close range, followed in similar fashion by Rein from dummy-half.

Moylan made it 16-0 at the break when he latched onto another short ball from Isaah Yeo to beat the Bulldogs’ rushing defence.