Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Panthers lose in another late fade
String of losses put playoff hopes in danger
TAMPA — These two Sunshine State rivals were projected to battle for Atlantic Division supremacy.
Instead, the wounded Tampa Bay Lightning and free-falling Panthers were literally fighting for their playoff lives Saturday night in Amalie Arena.
Frustration boiled over for both teams in a chippy slugfest, but the Panthers disturbing pattern of blowing leads continued as Ondrej Palat’s deflection with 2:23 left lifted the Lightning to a 3-2 victory.
The Panthers have lost five straight and eight of nine to tumble down the standings. They’re now four points behind the Lightning, who began Saturday four points behind the Islanders for a wild-card berth.
At times it looked like throwback to the ’70s when the Flyers and Bruins were firing more uppercuts than shots as the teams combined on 15 penalties for 50 minutes after two periods, including two fights apiece, six roughings and a 10-minute misconduct for Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic.
The Lightning were down three of their four starting centers from their 4-1 victory over the Wild on Thursday, while the Panthers lost defenseman Aaron Ekblad and fourth-line forward Denis Malgin to possible concussions after bruising hits in a penaltymarred second period.
Tied at 2-2 after two, James Reimer came up big with a couple of sterling saves, includ-
ing a point-blank one on Victor Hedman during a midperiod power play, and later, Yanni Gourde’s doorstep drive.
It wasn’t enough, as Palat deftly guided in Andrej Sustr’s shot from the point for what seems like a mortal wound to the Panthers’ dwindling playoff hopes.
Within two minutes of the puck drop, Petrovic and J.T. Brown dropped the gloves. That set the tone for a smashmouth evening that was scoreless until the Panthers scored twice in the final 3:28 of the opening frame.
Ten seconds after a puckcontrolling power play expired, the Panthers continued to attack until Aleksander Barkov’s shot caromed to Jaromir Jagr, who used his stick like a sand wedge to chip it in from an acute angle at 16:32. It was Jagr’s 14th goal and second in two nights.
Then with 47 seconds left in the period, the suddenly hot Mark Pysyk took a pass from Reilly Smith and slapped it in off a Lightning stick. It certainly didn’t help Lightning backup goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy that Jagr was blocking out the sun with his body outside the crease. It was Pysyk’s fourth goal and second this weekend.
In the second period, Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle came to the aid of Ekblad, his blue-line mate, after his head struck the glass from a high check by Gabriel Dumont. After their fight, Yandle got an extra two minutes and Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov immediately one-timed it past Reimer to cut Florida’s lead in half.
The Lightning’s powerplay goal snapped Florida’s top-ranked penalty-killing streak at 31 over 12-plus games. Kucherov leads the Lightning with 31 goals and 67 points, including 10 goals and 19 points over his last nine games.
After several more scrums the Panthers were victimized on a sensational, short-handed goal by Gourde, who in his 5th NHL game snuck it through Reimer for his first tally, despite Vincent Trocheck hacking away at him.
The Panthers were then stymied on a 56-second, 5-on-3 advantage, as Vasilevskiy robbed Jonathan Marchessault with a glove save to keep it 2-2 after two.
The Lightning faced off with more holes in the middle than a Dunkn’ Donut shop, losing three centers, including Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette.
They haven’t had Steven Stamkos, their perennial All-Star center and 50-goal scorer, since he sustained a knee injury on Nov. 15, but he participated in two consecutive morning skates, prompting a rumor floating around the arena Saturday that he would suit up.
But instead, AHL call-up Matthew Peca and former Panthers forward Greg McKegg helped fill the holes, as did wingers Jonathan Drouin and Brayden Point, who shifted to center on Tampa’s top line with Kucherov and Palat.
Marchy a bargain
Marchessault scored his 20th goal Saturday, nearly tripling his previous career high of 7 achieved last season with the Lightning.
However, Marchessault took an ugly minus-5 in the 7-4 loss.
“We always find to manage a way to not win hockey games,’’ Marchessault said. “Obviously, there’s something we’re not doing right, especially me. It’s a bad game defensively. Everybody needs to help each other and try to pick each other up. We need to turn that boat around.”