George Richards, FHN Publisher
Aside from sharing the same southern state and being born a year apart, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning don’t have a lot in common.
The two are rivals, sure, but nothing like some of the great in-state/province rivalries the NHL has been built on.
Perhaps this is the year that changes a bit.
It appears the rivalry between the Lightning and Panthers is starting to ramp up a little. Playing as many times as they will this season — not to mention what is at stake these days — will do that.
Thursday was the fifth of (at least) eight meetings between the two this season and, with the two tied atop the Central Division with a dozen-plus games remaining, the game had a playoff feel to it.
In the end, it was Victor Hedman breaking in and beating Chris Driedger in overtime leading the Lightning to a 3-2 win at Amalie Arena.
”We know how important these points are, we’re battling for first place here,” Anthony Duclair said. “Anytime you’re playing the defending (Stanley Cup) champs, you want to have a good outcome. You want to play hard. We did a good job of playing hard tonight.”
With the two points, Tampa Bay and Carolina are tied with 60; Florida is one off the pace with 59.
Florida held two leads from goals by Patric Hornqvist and Duclair (which came off a spectacular spin-o-rama pass from Jonathan Huberdeau) but they just couldn’t beat Andrei Vasilevskiy enough.
The Tampa Bay goalie had another all-world effort Thursday, stopping 36 shots.
Driedger ended with 16 saves.
”Tough ending,” Joel Quenneville said. “Like the way we played in that third period, we had everything going our way except the finish. We had 2-on-1, 2-on-1, 2-on-1 … that’s the game.
“We had some great chances, liked the balance of our lines with the different look. We had some depth in our lineup. I liked the way we worked, way we competed. Good goalie on the other side.”
The only way the first period — and the third, too — could have gone better for the Panthers was had they scored a few more goals.
They had the chances to do so.
Only despite outplaying Tampa Bay throughout the opening 20, Vasilevskiy kept the Bolts in it.
Only a driving back-handed shot from Hornqvist went through.
It was a slick move from Hornqvist who was found on a stretch pass from Alex Wennberg at 15:13.
The Panthers outshot the Lightning 13-4 and had 18 shot attempts in the first.
Tampa Bay, as everyone expected to be the case, woke up in the second.
The Lightning had more chances and controlled more of the play in the second period and tied the score on a power play chance.
When Florida cleared the puck, Vasilevskiy played it and threw it deep seeing the Panthers in the midst of a line change.
The Tampa goalie got the puck to Alex Killorn in stride as he and Anthony Cirelli walked in on Driedger unmolested.
MacKenzie Weegar raced into the play and got his stick in the way of Killorn’s cross-ice pass to Cirelli.
Unfortunately for Weegar and the Panthers, his stick deflected the puck past Driedger and Killorn was credited with the goal.
The third period went back the way of the Panthers as Florida threw 11 shots at Vasilevskiy within the first five minutes.
The Panthers made it 2-1 at 7:13 on Huberdeau’s spectacular pass and Duclair’s powerful finish from the right side.
”To be honest, he’s such a great passer and is so deceptive,” Duclair said, “I have to stay ready at all times. I have to be ready because it’s coming right to my stick. That was one hell of a pass and he makes unreal plays like that all the time. I just have to get open for him.”
Just about three minutes later, Ross Colton tapped in a pass from Mikhail Sergachev and put it off Driedger’s pad to tie the score once again.
Florida outshot the Lightning 15-5 in the third period but Vasilevskei was the difference as he many times is for the champs.
THE NEW GUYS ARE HERE
The Panthers had a number of new faces in the lineup Thursday as Nikita Gusev, Brandon Montour and Lucas Wallmark were in after being acquired before the NHL’s trade deadline.
As Quenneville promised, all got some pretty good assignments early.
Gusev not only started up with Sasha Barkov on the top line, but he also opened on the top power play unit. Wallmark centered the second line and Montour got some big minutes.
”I just wanted to keep it simple,” said Montour, who ended with 17:59 off 23 shifts. “There are little tweaks here and there that teams change how they make up plays … I wanted to play the right way, talk to guys on the bench or my partner. I thought me and Nutivaara were solid.”
Sam Bennett could be in the lineup Saturday against the Lightning or at least by Monday against the visiting Blue Jackets.
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT
1. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay
2. Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay
3. Anthony Duclair, Florida
ON DECK: PANTHERS AT LIGHTNING
When: Saturday, 7
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa
Tickets: AVAILABLE HERE
Season series: Tampa Bay leads 3-2
TV: BS-SUN
Radio: WQAM 560-AM