Luongo struggles; Panthers’ woes in Tampa continue

Tampa Bay scored early and often in another home victory over Florida.

Steven Stamkos had a goal and three assists and the Lightning reclaimed the top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 7-3 victory over the Panthers on Wednesday night.

“Guys were battling all night,” Stamkos said. “That’s just what you want to see. Compete, and then when you compete the skill takes over.”

Nikita Kucherov and Ryan McDonagh each had a goal and two assists. Mathieu Joseph, Yanni Gourde, Adam Erne and Dan Giradi also scored, J.T. Miller had three assists, and Louis Domingue made 40 saves.

“It’s tough to lose when you score seven,” said Domingue, who was won three of four filling in for injured starter Andrei Vasilevskiy. “I just thought we played a great game from start to finish.”

The Lightning are 11-1-1 at home against Florida since the start of the 2013-14 season.

Panthers left wing Mike Hoffman extended his points streak to 17 games (10 goals, 20 points) with a late third-period power-play goal. He is the fifth player in NHL history to have a points streak of at least 17 games in his first season with a franchise.

Troy Brouwer and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers. They are 2-3 on a six-game trip. Roberto Luongo, who was injured in the season opener in Tampa, was pulled early in the third after allowing six goals on 28 shots.

“We kind of let Luon out to dry there,” Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Ultimately they were coming in waves at us all game and we didn’t have a response.”

Tampa Bay went ahead 4-1 early in the second when Gourde scored on an in-close give-and-go with Stamkos at 2:37 before Erne put home a backhander 2:08 later.

“Just too many unforced errors,” Hoffman said.