George Richards, FHN Publisher
Jan Rutta said on the Fox Sports pregame show Sunday that the Tampa Bay Lightning were excited about playing the Panthers and wanted to erase the “sour taste” from their previous meeting.
Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky says he does not look back on past games, but the six goals the Lightning scored against him in his last meeting against Tampa probably had him looking for a little palate cleansing as well.
Regardless, it appeared both teams were hungry in this one as the latest rendition of the cross-state rivalry had a playoff feel with both teams trading punches throughout.
In the end, it was the host Lightning holding onto first place in the NHL as it scored three goals (one into an empty net) in the third to hold off rival Florida 5-3.
“I thought it was a great battle,” Joel Quenneville said. “Both teams worked hard, we did everything we possibly could to get a point or two. Tough loss, but at the same time, a lot of positives come out of that game.”
The Panthers are now four points back of Tampa Bay in the standings. The two teams have split the four games played so far.
On Sunday, Florida took the initial lead as Carter Verhaeghe worked between a pair of former teammates and scored 3:28 in.
It was the last time the Panthers would hold the lead.
The Lightning got the equalizer 32 seconds later, Yanni Gourde jumping on a rebound to tie it.
It went like this the entire day.
Back-and-forth, Tampa Bay would score and the Panthers would match.
”When you play these guys, it’s going to be tight,” Keith Yandle said.
“It’s a good little rivalry we have going right now. I really liked our effort, we played hard for 60 minutes out there. Obviously there are points in a game you can learn from and get better from and we will do that.”
Down 2-1 in the second, the Panthers had a Frank Vatrano goal waved off because of an offside video review but then tied it when Gus Forsling scored on a power play chance.
Florida trailed 3-2 in the third before Patric Hornqvist tied it again by deflecting a Yandle power play shot.
At 10:56 of the third with Aaron Ekblad in the box for a high stick, Tyler Johnson slid in front of Forsling and put a pass from Gourde past Bobrovsky (19 saves).
That was the game-winning goal as Brayden Point scored into an empty net in the final seconds.
One thing that did not have a playoff feel was Tampa Bay opting to start Curtis McElhinney in net after Andrei Vasilevskiy started Saturday against the Blackhawks.
McElhinney was terrific, however, stopping 29 shots including a couple breakaways that could have turned things in Florida’s favor.
The Panthers and Lightning have four more meetings scheduled (at least) toward the end of the season.
It should be fun.
”The games were like that in our three game series and it was like that tonight,” Verhaeghe said. “It’s going to be a battle all year with these guys. They’re a good team, they play physical. We match that. No one is backing down. That was a good game.”
For Florida, however, its season continues in Chicago on Tuesday with a two-game series.
The Panthers then move on to Dallas for another two games before returning home.
FIRST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
The two teams got into a bit of a track meet in the opening period with Florida outshooting the Lightning 11-10 in a game that was tied by the end of it.
The two teams scored 32 seconds apart with Verhaeghe giving Florida the lead at 3:28 and Gourde answering at the four-minute mark.
Both teams had plenty of chances and both Bobrovsky and McElhinney were up to the task.
Before Verhaeghe’s goal, the Panthers had a couple of good looks from Anthony Duclair and Ekblad.
Later, it was Hornqvist being stopped on the doorstep not once but twice.
Bobrovsky’s biggest save of the period came on the Tampa power play when he put a pad out in front of Gourde and made the stop.
Florida also had a power play in the first but it was Tampa which had two chances as Yandle fumbled the puck on one breakaway and Ekblad lost it on a second.
Owen Tippett did have a scoring chance in the dying moments of the power play.
SECOND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
It was another exciting, coast-to-coast period and the Panthers and Lightning continued to trade blows.
Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead when Alex Killorn jumped on a loose puck which went off of Ekblad’s stick and came right to himVatrano tied the score (and extended MacKenzie Weegar’s point streak) by following up on a rebound, but Tampa challenged offside.
Video review showed that, yes, Weegar had been offside in getting the puck in the zone.
Florida kept coming, with Duclair and Forsling getting a couple of looks as well as Barkov firing a backhanded shot that got stopped.
With Blake Coleman in the box for tripping up Yandle behind the Florida net, the Panthers’ power play finally got a goal on a whopping slapper from Forsling with 1:36 left in the period.
Tampa Bay had two power play chances in the period with Alex Wennberg getting shorthanded chances on both of them — including a 3-on-1 try in which McElhinney made a terrific save.
Wennberg drew a penalty on that second shorthanded chance, cutting the Tampa power play in half.
Tampa outshot the Panthers 12-6 in the period with the two teams tied through 40 with 32 shot attempts each.
THIRD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
The Panthers had a great scoring chance early on when Duclair sped through the zone with a picked-off puck and was dragged down by Anthony Cirelli as he attempted a one-handed shot.
The NHL office in Toronto reviewed the play to see if the puck went across the line as Cirelli crashed into McElhinney.
Although it was obvious the puck was under the goalie’s pads as he slid across the line and dislodged the cage.
But, video appeared to only show the puck cradling the line so, no goal.
Quenneville said his argument was one of “common sense” as replays showed the puck tucked under McElhinney’s pads — which were clearly over the line.
”I saw a couple of different angles on it,” Quenneville said. “Where the puck appeared it (had) been vacant. It was not conclusive, but there was no puck there and all of a sudden … common sense, it has to be in the net.”
Just over two minutes later, the Tampa Bay fourth line struck with Mathieu Joseph keeping the puck in the zone and scoring off a pass from Ross Colton as he slid through the slot.
Hornqvist tied it by getting a chunk of Yandle’s power play shot a minute later.
The Lightning got its fourth power play chance midway through the period with Johnson giving Tampa Bay the lead once again.
The game got chippy in the final 10 minutes of the period with Weegar getting into it before Jonathan Huberdeau got into a little fracas which drew a penalty and another power play chance.
With Bobrovsky out of the net, the Panthers had numerous chances against McElhinney but could not find the tying goal this time around.
”We worked hard the whole game long,” Quenneville said. “We had come back in different games and we kept doing the same things. We had great pace to start the game, great purpose.”
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Yanni Gourde, Tampa Bay
2. Sasha Barkov, Florida
3. Curtis McElhinney, Tampa Bay