The Florida Panthers finished off its four-game road trip in fine fashion, rolling to a 5-2 win over the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.
A hooking call on Niko Mikkola gave the Lightning an early man-advantage, but it was the Panthers who’d get the opening goal at the 2:16 mark.
After Sam Reinhart got a piece of Darren Raddysh’s shot, Aaron Ekblad settled the puck and sent Reinhart away with Anton Lundell on a 2-on-1 break. Raddysh laid out to take away the passing lane, so Reinhart shot and made it look easy, beating Jonas Johansson five-hole for his third shorthanded goal of the season.
With time running out on Mikkola’s transgression, Yanni Gourde put a golden opportunity off the cross bar and the Panthers countered to take a two-goal lead. Seth Jones’ attempt to outlet hit Brandon Hagel in the skate and came to Uvis Balinskis, who head-manned to Lundell. Lundell rushed up ice with Reinhart and Mikkola, who occupied Raddysh. Like Reinhart, Lundell opted to shoot and solved Johannson blocker-side for his tenth goal at 3:48.
The Panthers would strike again 11:48 into the second period. After Charle-Eduoard D’Astous halted the advance of Reinhart at center, Ekblad gloved the puck out the air and carried it over the blue line before dishing off to Carter Verhaeghe on the right boards. Verhaeghe whipped the puck towards the crease where it was steered home by a driving Brad Marchand, who got inside of Max Crozier.
Reinhart would notch his second of the night with 1:52 left in the frame when he took a hard centering pass from Mackie Samoskevich and fired the puck by Johansson with Curtis Douglas off for tripping Marchand.
The Lightning would get on the board 1:19 later when Oliver Bjorkstrand went cross-ice to Crozier and the rookie defenseman stepped into a slapper from just above the right circle that soared over Sergei Bobrovsky. The second assist on Crozier’s first NHL goal went to Brayden Point.
J.J. Moser would halve the deficit 2:11 into third, taking a languid backhand pass from Point before skating in on a heavily screened Bobrovksy, who got bumped by Jake Guentzel, and ripping in a shot from the left circle. The secondary helper on Moser’s marker was credited to Raddysh.
The Cats would unsuccessfully challenge the goal and Mikkola and Guentzel would drop the gloves on the ensuing power play before Verhaeghe clinched at 6:37, beautifully potting a backhander from in close after receiving a pass from Balinskis.
Florida followed up Saturday night’s defensive masterclass against Dallas with another high-quality road game to finish up the trip with an impressive 3-1 record. Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 28 shots and the Cats killed off all five of Tampa Bay’s power-play chances to pull within two points of a playoff position.
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