Brayden Point netted the winning goal in overtime, it was his 27th goal of the year. @FanSidedNHL
Tampa, FL- The red-hot Florida Panthers traveled across the Sunshine State to play the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning. With only a month left of the regular season, both teams are looking very good, and while the Lightning have a playoff spot in the bag, the Panthers are going to have to continue their recent success to secure one of the two Eastern Conference Wild Card spots.
The Panthers, led by 38-year-old goaltender Roberto Luongo, come into the division matchup winning eight of their last 10 games and so far in March have outscored opponents 11-4 over three contests. Tampa bay who came into the contest with the best record in the NHL (45-17-4) had won seven of their previous 10 games.
Tampa Bay got out to the early 2-0 lead with goals by Yanni Gourde (10:38) and newly-acquired J.T. Miller (12:51). The team was also successful on the penalty kill after a minor penalty to Captain Steven Stamkos. Nick Bjugstad was able to break through for the Panthers at 18:23 in the first period on a shot that went in right behind the helmet of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The 23-year-old Vasilevskiy was tested in the first period as the Panthers outshot the Lightning 18-9.
It didn’t take long for the home team to answer with their third goal of the game at 1:27 in the second period by Yanni Gourde. This was Gourde’s second goal of the game and was his 24th of the season. The Lightning defense continued to give chances to the Panthers’ offense throughout the second period when they finally relinquished another goal to Nick Bjugstad (13:35).
Before the second period was over, the sixth-year forward, Alex Killorn, potted his 13th goal of the season with assists coming from elite playmakers Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. By the end of the period, Florida still led in total shots 32-21 but trailed by a score of 4-2. There was some solid physical play over the first two periods starting with a fight between the Panthers’ Micheal Haley and the Lightning’s Braydon Coburn (5:07), followed by a few big hits and a scuffle as the horn sounded for the end of the second period.
The Panthers started the third period in high-flying fashion as Bjugstad completed a hat- trick only 21 seconds into play. Tampa Bay would continue to have trouble keeping pucks away from Vasilevskiy as Florida’s Vincent Trocheck capitalized on Andrej Sustr’s tripping penalty at 5:25.
With the game tied up at 4-4 through the third period, the Lightning looked outmatched in their own zone as the Panthers were able to get shots off at will. By the end of the period, there had already been a total of 80 combined shots on goal throughout the game.
The teams headed into 3-on-3 overtime but almost finished quickly as Alexander Barkov got free on a breakaway early in the period but was stopped Vasilevskiy. Roberto Luongo then proceeded to save the game for the Panthers as he fended off a Lightning 2-on-1 opportunity.
As overtime progressed, the Lightning were able to put away the winning goal as it came off of Brayden Point’s stick at 2:49 in the overtime period. Point made a nice move in front of Luongo to get a good shot off from only a few feet out, securing the victory for Tampa Bay.
This marks the sixth overtime game in a row for the Lightning, but they still have been able to pull out wins in five of those games. Neither team looked its sharpest Tuesday night, but the home squad scored when it mattered most. Tampa Bay still holds the best record in the NHL after the contest, but they haven’t been playing their best on defense as of late, and it will be interesting to see if they can make some corrections over the next few games.
With the return of newly-acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh looming, the team should be able to start limiting opposing chances around the net. The Lightning will be back on the ice Thursday in an Eastern Conference matchup against the struggling New York Rangers.
