Panthers’ comeback falls short in wild loss to Lightning
Never give up on the Florida Panthers.
Rarely do they give up on themselves.
Saturday night was another example of the Panthers’ resolve. Only against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the hole they dug for themselves proved too deep.
Florida found itself down four goals in the second period but pulled within one in the third before the Lightning escaped Sunrise with a wild 5-3 win.
In the final two periods, the Panthers outshot the Lightning 38-5, but, in the end, Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stood tall and willed his team to a much-needed victory.
The Lightning, which scored three goals on those five shots in the final 40 minutes, has won three straight games as it tries to hold onto one of the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.
“You have to try and replicate it, just do it from the start,’’ said Matthew Tkachuk, whose Panthers have lost their last two after winning 18 of 21.
“They are a really good team over there, but we know we can definitely hang with them. When we take over like that. it should give us a lot of confidence that we can do that to every team.”
Florida was down 1-0 just 20 seconds into the game when Steven Stamkos
scored his first of two. His cross-ice pass designed for Brandon Hagel clipped the skate of Florida’s Brandon Montour and skidded past Sergei Bobrovsky.
It would be that kind of a night for the Panthers.
Down 3-0 early in the second for the third consecutive game, Florida appeared to break through on a shot from defenseman Josh Mahura with Vasilevskiy tangled up and down on the ice.
A massive melee broke out after Dmitry Kulikov hit Tampa Bay’s Conor Sheary before the puck went in. Officials gathered and hit Kulikov with a five-minute major, allowing them to enlist video review on the play.
Kulikov’s penalty was upheld, he was ejected from the game — and Mahura’s goal came off the board.
“Never seen one of those,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said.
Added Mahura: “I don’t know what happened there, and it was unfortunate we did not get that one there.”
Tampa Bay got its second goal from Stamkos not long after to make it 4-0 — and then, the Panthers sprung to life.
Tkachuk scored on a shorthanded chance when he took the shot on a 3-on-1 break at 8:23 of the second. A little over three minutes later, and Sam Reinhart scored on the power play — setting the arena into a frenzy.
“We’ve kind of dug ourselves a hole these last couple, but our game is there,’’ said Reinhart, who now has 48 goals. “It works when we’re executing it. There are some things to tighten up early.’’
Although Florida had all the momentum and carried through by completely dominating play, Vasilevskiy did not give in.
The Panthers finally made it a 4-3 game when Reinhart got his second of the night with 3:52 remaining.
Florida pulled goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for one final push, but Nikita Kucherov got his 40th of the season by putting the puck into that empty net with 1:32 left to put the Panthers away.
The Panthers outshot Tampa Bay 50-16 in the game, with Vasilevskiy making 47 saves.
Last month, Vasilevskiy gave up six goals on 22 shots to the Panthers before being pulled after the second period. Florida won that one, 9-2.
Payback?
A little.
In the end, as Stamkos said, Tampa Bay “really needed these two points.’’
With the loss, the Panthers fell a point back of Boston for the lead in the Atlantic Division, as well as the Eastern Conference and NHL standings.
Florida is off until Thursday, when it plays host to the Nashville Predators. Maurice has two practice days set for his team — and with the playoffs coming, the Panthers need it.
“One day off and then
For summaries, complete standings, scores go to the eEdition at MiamiHerald.com.
Boston Florida Toronto Tampa Bay Detroit Buffalo Montreal Ottawa Metropolitan
N.Y. Rangers Carolina Philadelphia Washington N.Y. Islanders New Jersey Pittsburgh Columbus
Colorado Dallas Winnipeg Nashville Minnesota St. Louis Arizona Chicago Pacific
GP W LOT Pts GF GA
69 40 14 15 95 231 190 68 45 19 4 94 224 165 66 38 19 9 85 241 208 67 36 25 6 78 235 225 67 34 27 6 74 229 223 68 32 31 5 69 201 202 67 25 31 11 61 186 236 65 28 33 4 60 209 226 GP W L OT Pts GF GA
68 45 19 4 67 41 20 6 68 34 26 8 66 32 25 9 67 29 23 15 67 32 31 4 66 29 28 9 67 23 33 11
94 229 185 88 225 182 76 202 208 73 176 206 73 202 222 68 219 233 67 191 196 57 198 240
GP W LOT Pts GF GA
68 43 20 5 91 254 204 69 41 19 9 91 251 210 66 42 19 5 89 204 157 68 39 25 4 82 219 204 68 33 27 8 74 212 219 67 35 29 3 73 190 203 68 28 35 5 61 201 224 67 18 44 5 41 145 240 GP W LOT Pts GF GA
Vancouver 68 42 18 8 92 238 184 Edmonton 65 40 21 4 84 231 185 Los Angeles 67 34 22 11 79 204 178 Vegas 66 35 24 7 77 213 199 Calgary 67 33 29 5 71 211 215 Seattle 66 28 26 12 68 180 190 Anaheim 67 23 41 3 49 169 244 San Jose 66 16 43 7 39 146 263
NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.
MONDAY
Washington at Calgary, 8:30
Buffalo at Seattle, 10
SUNDAY
N.Y. Rangers 5, N.Y. Islanders 2
New Jersey at Vegas
Carolina at Ottawa
Detroit at Pittsburgh we’re back to work Monday,’’ Maurice said. “We will get two solid skates in, and we haven’t had that, and won’t again. It will probably be the last two meaningful practices we
San Jose at Chicago
Winnipeg at Columbus
Anaheim at St. Louis
SATURDAY
Tampa Bay 5, Florida 3
Detroit 4, Buffalo 1
Ottawa 4, N.Y. Islanders 3 (OT) N.Y. Rangers 7, Pittsburgh 4 Arizona 4, New Jersey 1 Columbus 4, San Jose 2
Calgary 5, Montreal 2
Boston 6, Philadelphia 5 Carolina 5, Toronto 4 (SO) Dallas 4, Los Angeles 1
St. Louis 3, Minnesota 2 (SO) Washington 2, Vancouver 1 Nashville 4, Seattle 1
Colorado 3, Edmonton 2 (OT)
Tampa Bay 2 2 1—5 Florida 0 2 1—3
First Period—1, Tampa Bay, Stamkos 26 (Cernak) 0:20 2, Tampa Bay, Eyssimont 10 (Paul, Perbix) 13:21.Penalties—Dumba, TB (roughing), 5:42; Bennett, Fla (slashing), 14:33; Reinhart, Fla (tripping), 15:10; Kucherov, TB (high sticking), 15:10; Kucherov, TB (high sticking), 15:10;
Perbix, TB (delay of game), 17:54.
Second Period—3, Tampa Bay, D.Raddysh 5 (Duclair, Stamkos) 3:02 4, Tampa Bay, Stamkos 27 (Hedman, Kucherov) 6:59 (pp) 5, Florida, M.Tkachuk 22 (Mahura) 8:23 (sh) 6, Florida, Reinhart 47 (Bennett, M.Tkachuk) 11:55 (pp).Penalties— Eyssimont, TB (roughing), 3:38; Kulikov,
Fla major (match penalty), 3:38; EkmanLarsson, Fla (hooking), 6:51; Glendening, TB (hooking), 10:31; Cernak, TB (tripping), 15:27; Dumba, TB (slashing), 16:34.
Third Period—7, Florida, Reinhart 48 (unassisted) 16:08 8, Tampa Bay, Kucherov 40 (Hagel, Stamkos) 18:28 (en).Penalties— Duclair, TB (roughing), 7:38; Bennett, Fla (holding), 9:44; Forsling, Fla (holding), 13:35; Verhaeghe, Fla (closing hand on puck), 19:36; Mikkola, Fla (misconduct), 19:53; Dumba, TB (misconduct), 19:53; Lomberg, Fla (kneeing), 19:53.
Shots on Goal—Tampa Bay 11-3-2—16. Florida 12-18-20—50.
Power-play opportunities—Tampa of 7; Florida 1 of 7.
Goalies—Tampa Bay Vasilevskiy 24-16-1 (50 shots-47 saves). Florida Bobrovsky 32-14-2 (15-11).
A—19,396 (19,250).T—2:48.
Bay 1 will have, in some ways, of the year. And then we still have some work to do. Very, very heavy schedule coming up. Our heaviest of the year.’’