George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers came into their game Thursday with the Tampa Bay Lightning looking like a team with a little something to prove.
And, let’s be honest, they kind of do.
A single game does not a season make, but the Panthers sure looked like a legit contender especially in the second period when they scored three goals to help fuel a 5-2 victory over their across state ‘rivals.’
We put rivals in quotation marks because, as we know, this series has not been much of a rivalry over the years.
“It’s good to know where we stand against a good team,’’ said Carter Verhaeghe, who scored against the team he helped win the Stanley Cup with last season.
“That was not their best, though. We have two more games with them coming up and their going to come out even better but we will be ready.”
Although the Panthers own an edge in the all-time series, Tampa Bay has plenty of bragging rights on the Panthers in the success department — not only in winning the Stanley Cup twice but also in winning 10 of the past 12 between the two.
Thursday definitely meant a lot more to the Panthers than it did the defending champs who saw their six-game winning streak end.
“The whole team was kind of buzzing out there,’’ Verheaghe said. “We had an edge the whole night.”
The Panthers may have started the season 7-1-2 but have heard the whispers perhaps their lack of competition has led to their early success.
Before the game, Florida coach Joel Quenneville basically said he did not know how the Lightning look at the Panthers “but for us,’’ he continued, “this is a big game, an important game.”
And it looked like it.
From the start Thursday, the Panthers were the better team.
”Excellent game across the board,” Quenneville said afterward. “Obviously we were excited to play this game, to face this challenge. I thought the approach of the guys was outstanding, the excitement on the bench.
“The next game is going to be an even bigger challenge but the excitement and the purpose in which we played was exactly how we had to be to be successful.”
Florida took the first lead on a nice hustle goal from Frank Vatrano then made it 2-0 in the second when Alex Wennberg took a slick feed from Jonathan Huberdeau.
Tampa Bay cut its deficit with a power play goal but the Panthers ended up scoring the next two (Verhaeghe, the former Lightning fourth-liner, got his team-leading seventh and Aaron Ekblad hammered one in on the power play) for a 4-1 lead at the second intermission.
Brayden Point got his second of the night a minute into the third but the Panthers put it away when Brett Connolly — promoted to the top line due to Anthony Duclair being out — scored into an empty net with a minute left.
Both goalies were good Thursday only Sergei Bobrovsky (19 saves) will go home with the win.
”Definitely a big win for us, we know Tampa Bay is a really good team,” said Bobrovsky, who helped Columbus shock the hockey world by sweeping the top-seeded Lightning out of the 2019 NHL playoffs.
“This is a very good team from the goalie to the D to the forwards. Very balanced, very good. But our guys didn’t allow them to create anything. We had great sticks in the defensive zone, our D held the blueline very well on the rush attacks. We crushed their attacks from the start of their development.
”Big win for us to keep building our atmosphere in the locker room and having the right feelings. Good win for us.”
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves in the loss.
The two teams play again Saturday at BB&T Center and continue the three-game, home-and-home series Monday at Amalie Arena.
Thursday was the first of eight meetings between the two teams this season.
”This was the game we were looking for,” Quenneville said, “but now we get them again, and we’re gonna get them again and again after that. It’s one of those situations where they have so many weapons on their team … we did what we had to do today.”
— Florida was forced to play without top line winger Anthony Duclair after he was placed on the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol list on Thursday.
It is unknown how long Duclair will be out.
”When we get the news on something like this,” Quenneville said, “with the change in the protocol, it’s like how we have been all year. You have to be flexible. You can use the word nimble. There’s a lot of unpredictability here and we thought, let’s move Connolly into that spot and I thought he did a good job.”
Tampa Bay also played without one of its top offensive players as captain Steven Stamkos is out with a lower body injury.
The team says he is day-to-day.
First period highlights
Florida controlled the flow and pace of the game for much of the first period although the Lightning had plenty of chances.
The Panthers ended up going into the first break up 1-0 thanks to Vatrano’s goal.
That came off a big stackup around the net, one in which Owen Tippett won the puck battle behind the net and fed Vatrano hanging out in front.
”I knew we got a few whacks at the puck and it went behind the goal line and Tippett made a great play to me in front,” Vatrano said.
“We talked about getting in front of Vasilevskiy, he’s a big goalie and you kind of have to make him work for his saves. We got a few whacks at it, stayed with it and it ended up in the net.”
Tampa Bay looked to take the initial lead when Barclay Goodrow picked off an errant pass from Verhaeghe and took a point-blank shot that Bobrovsky kicked away.
Verhaeghe hustled to the puck and ended up flying into the Tampa zone and getting a scoring chance of his own.
Midway through the period, Wennberg had a prime shot ring off the post.
Florida won the shot battle only 7-6, but attempted far more, outshooting the Lightning 20-12.
Of the Panthers seven SOG, Verhaeghe was credited with three of them.
Second period highlights
This was a 20-minute stretch which the Panthers owned almost from start to finish.
Anton Stralman looked to make it 2-0 in the opening minute but his shot from right in front of the net was knocked down.
The Panthers did get their two-goal lead on Wennberg’s third goal in as many games at 8:31 of the period.
After Brayden Point made it 2-1 after sliding in between MacKenzie Weegar and Wennberg to go top shelf on the power play, Florida got its first power play and Ekblad’s one-timer off a give-and-go from Keith Yandle made it a 3-1 game.
Verhaeghe got it to 4-1 at 14:55 when his shot from off the half wall clipped Tampa defenseman Erik Cernak and went on in.
The Panthers had a brief power play chance at 17:05, but the face-off winning pass got past Yandle and he reached out to try and slow Blake Coleman, hooked the referee and was called for a penalty.
When Eetu Luostarinen got called for hooking not long after, it put the Panthers in a tough spot — but only briefly.
Third period highlights
Tampa Bay opened the period down three goals but with 55 seconds left on the Luostarinen penalty.
The Lightning only needed 54 of those seconds to make it 4-2 as Point drove in and scored less than a minute gone in the final period.
It was the second goal of the night for Point.
Both teams traded chances in the period with Patric Hornqvist picking off a puck deep in the Tampa zone but firing high.
The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy with just under three minutes left and Florida took aim a handful of times — coming closest when Ekblad missed the cage with 1:54 remaining.
Then Connolly put one in with a minute left and that was that.
”to get off the good start we have this year,” vatrano said, “we have played consistent every night no matter who our competition is. Every game is a division game, every game is important especially with a 56-game season. Every point matters.”
Up Next: Tampa Bay Lightning at Florida Panthers
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise
Tickets: ON SALE HERE
TV/Radio: FSF/560-AM