Shorty Sunday: Panthers Special Teams Do In Lightning

The Panthers and Lightning resumed their rivalry Sunday and a couple of quick shorthanded goals led Florida to a 4-2 win.

The two keep it going with the rematch tonight in Sunrise.

Florida has won four straight and seven of its past nine.

Tied at 1 going into the second, Florida broke things open when Uvis Balinskis took an interference penalty at 9:31.

Florida then scored twice within 42 seconds — A.J. Greer got the first shorty, Eetu Luostarinen the second — to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead.

Sam Reinhart scored Florida’s first goal of the game.

Spencer Knight made 18 saves.

Florida’s special teams were the difference on Sunday; the Panthers were 1-for-2 on the power play, and killed off three power-play chances by the Lightning.

PANTHERS v LIGHTNING NOTES

• Evan Rodrigues played in his 500th NHL game.
• With 56 regular-season goals, Reinhart is a goal away from tying Pavel Bure (57 in 2000) for the most goals in a calendar year. Reinhart has two games left in 2024.
• Florida scored two shorthanded goals in the same period for the fifth time in franchise history.
• The 10 shorthanded goals leads the NHL — no other team has more than four — and are two away from the franchise record for a single season.
• With Jonah Gadjovich unavailable with an upper-body injury, Rasmus Asplund was recalled from Charlotte and made his debut with the Panthers. He had signed with Florida in 2023 and spent all of last season with the Checkers and had 10 goals in 25 games this season.

HOW THEY SCORED

• Panthers 1, Lightning 0 (15:51 1st PP): Sam Reinhart deflects a hard one-timer from Aaron Ekblad for his 43rd special teams goal in the calendar year — most since Dave Andrechuk in 1993.
• Lightning 1, Panthers 1 (19:55 1st): Nick Paul ties the score by getting the backdoor pass from Victor Hedman and putting it through Spencer Knight’s skates.
• Panthers 2, Lightning 1 (10:28 2nd SH): A.J. Greer strips the puck from Nikita Kucherov in the Florida zone and brings it up ice. Tomas Nosek’s shot was stopped by Andrei Vasilevskiy, but Greer found the rebound and backhanded it home.
• Panthers 3, Lightning 1 (11:10 2nd SH): Eetu Luostarinen picks off the puck in the neutral zone, drives in and beats Vasilevskiy.
• Panthers 3, Lightning 2 (3:26 3rd): Brayden Point comes hard off the rush, walking in on Knight for his 22nd goal of the season.
• Panthers 4, Lightning 2 (19:29 3rd EN): Reinhart X2.

GR’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME

• 1. Sam Reinhart, Florida
• 2. A.J. Greer, Florida
• 3. Spencer Knight, Florida

ON DECK: GAME No. 36

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Monday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Season Series — At Tampa Bay: Sunday; Ap. 15. At Florida:Monday; March 3.
• Last Regular Season: Panthers Won 2-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 77-51-19, 10 ties
• All-Time Postgame Series: Lightning Leads 2-1 (won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS); Florida d. Lightning 4-1 in 2024 first-round.
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1 p.m.