Tampa Bay‘s third period performance was too much for the Florida Panthers as they lost 5-3 on Sunday afternoon.
Game Flow
The Panthers opened up the scoring in Sunday’s game when Carter Verhaeghe scored the opening goal. Tampa responded less than a minute later when Yanni Gourde scored a wrister, tying the game at one apiece.
Both teams proved to not be done in the second. Halfway through the frame, Alex Killorn scored to give the Bolts their first lead of the game. Towards the end of the period, however, Gustav Forsling scored his first goal of the season to even things up yet again.
The third period is where Tampa would prove they were the better team on Sunday. Five minutes through the final frame, Mathieu Joseph scored to give Tampa Bay the lead. Florida would then respond a minute later on a power play goal from Patric Hornqvist, tying the game for a third time. Halfway through the frame, Tyler Johnson would score a power play goal that ended up as the game-winner. Then Brayden Point scored the empty-netter, wrapping up the scoring at Amalie Center.
“The last time we played the Panthers, we gifted them a ton of opportunities. We actually did that a little bit in the first period, but Mac (McElhinney) was there to bail us out.”
Takeaways
- Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 19 saves on 23 shots.
- Curtis McElhinney gave Andrei Vasilevskiy a breather and picked up his first win in over a month (29 saves), snapping a three-game winless skid. The 37-year-old owns a 3.16 GAA and .880 save percentage in seven appearances on the year.
- Ryan McDonagh left Sunday’s game after the first period with an undisclosed lower-body injury and did not return. The 31-year-old has appeared in all 30 games for the Lightning so far this season, scoring two goals and adding six assists in his fourth season with Tampa Bay.
- Sunday’s game marked the fifth time the state rivals faced each other while holding down first and second place in the division through at least 15 games. It happened twice in 2015-16 and twice in 2003-04.
Coach Q on Sunday’s loss: “I thought it was a great battle. I thought both teams worked hard. I thought our team did everything we possibly could to put ourselves in a spot to get a point or two. A tough loss, but at the same time a lot of positives coming out of that game.”
Next Up
Lightning: Will face the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at 8:30 PM EST.
Panthers: Will face the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday at 8:00 PM EST.