The Tampa Bay Lightning scored the first goal of the game and the last goal of the game. Unfortunately, the Florida Panthers scored nine times in between those goals as they extended their road-win streak to 11 in a 9-2 victory over the Lightning.
There is no need to delve into the dirty details of this game other than to say that the Bolts failed to execute in almost every aspect of the game. After Brandon Hagel scored 24 seconds into the game, it was a four-goals-in-eleven-minutes stretch that put this game out of reach.
For me, the turning point came shortly after the Panthers tied things up with a Brandon Montour goal that deflected off of Emil Lilleberg. On the next shift, Steven Stamkos had a slapshot stopped by Sergei Bobrovsky (who was really sharp with 28 saves including a breakaway on Nikita Kucherov), but the rebound came right back to Stamkos and his follow-up shot rang off the far post. If that had gone in, who knows how this game would have ended.
Instead, the Panthers ended up ripping off goals by Sam Bennett, Kevin Stenlund, and after a video review determined that incidental contact was made outside of the Lightning crease, Gustav Forsling. Two power play goals in 1:37 to start the second period both, by Matthew Tkachuk, all but ended the game. In a rare move, Coach Cooper pulled Andrei Vasilevskiy (16 saves on 22 shots) after the second and put Jonas Johansson in to start the third.
That didn’t work as the Panthers scored twice in the first 1:56 of the third to officially turn it into a rout. Verhaeghe scored his 30th goal a few minutes later to make it 9-1. Brayden Point would make it 9-2 with a power play goal towards the end of the third period. Nikita Kucherov picked up another point, so at least that was one positive on the night.
To paraphrase Coach Cooper – the best thing about tomorrow is that it’s not today. It is only one bad game in a long stretch of many good games. They’ll be back on the ice Monday against the Senators. Let’s see if this loss is a harbinger to bad things, or a speed bump on the way to the playoffs.
Brandon Hagel (Anthony Cirelli) 1-0 Bolts
Brandon Montour (Sam Bennett) 1-1
Sam Bennett (Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov)
Kevin Stenlund (Ryan Lomberg, Josh Mahura) 3-1 Panthers
Gustav Forsling (Unassisted) 4-1 Panthers
Matthew Tkachuk (Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour) Power Play, 5-1 Panthers
Matthew Tkachuk (Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour) Power Play, 6-1 Panthers
Carter Verhaeghe (Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk) Power Play, 7-1 Panthers
Sam Bennett (Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell) Power Play, 8-1 Panthers
Carter Verhaeghe (Gustav Forsling, Sam Reinhart) 9-1 Panthers
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 9-2 Panthers
