Recap
The Tampa Bay Lightning won decisively as they destroyed the Florida Panthers 6-1 on Saturday night. Although the Lightning won by a lot, the first period was scoreless. But in the 2nd, Ondrej Palat, Mathieu Joseph, and Tyler Johnson (2 goals) scored to make it 4-0. In the 3rd, Frank Vatrano would score to avoid the shutout, but just over a minute later, Alexander Volkov made it 5-1. Volkov, who was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, scored his first NHL goal. After Volkov’s goal, Barclay Goodrow wasn’t done, making it a 6-1 game, the final in Sunrise, Florida.
Tyler Johnson
Tyler Johnson had a fantastic game on Saturday night, racking up 2 goals. Johnson started the season a little slow after passing waivers in October. He only scored 1 goal and had 3 assists in his first 11 games. With Stamkos, Kucherov, and Cirelli out of the lineup someone needed to step up. That guy was without a doubt Tyler Johnson. Will we see more out of Johnson? Is this a one game stunt? We can only think.
Stats
The Lightning, who now improve to 10-2-1, killed off four Florida power plays in the win. Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots and ran his record to 9-2-1. Meanwhile, Bobrovsky had his first loss in regulation this season, stopping only 22 shots out of the 28 faced. Bobrovsky is now 5-1-1, while the Panthers are 8-2-2.
Next Up
The rubber match of the “Sunshine State Rivalry” will be on Monday at 7:30 PM, in Tampa Bay.