@jayRecher
Five different Florida Panthers found the back of the net and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves as the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning looked to make it two wins in a row over their in-state rivals, but it was the Panthers that jumped out in front in the opening period.
A Brandon Montour shot deflected off of Erik Cernak -- who was jostling with Anthony Duclair in front -- and past Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 1-0 at the 8:41 mark of the 1st.
Just under four minutes later, Florida made it 2-0 when Aleksander Barkov scored on the power play following a too many men on the ice call on the Lightning.
The Bolts did get on the board when a Mikhail Sergachev shot from the point went off the skate of Brayden Point and in at the 13:40 mark to cut the Panthers lead to 2-1.
It looked like the Lightning would go into the first intermission trailing by only one, but a goal by Jonathan Huberdeau with under 8 seconds left in the period made it 3-1.
The teams played a pretty even 2nd period, until Frank Vatrano scored on a breakaway to increase the Florida lead to 4-1.
The Lightning got their own late-in-the-period goal when Cernak found the back of the net with 45 seconds left in the middle stanza and it looked to give some momentum to Tampa Bay and put a jolt of energy into the crowd at Amalie.
Mathieu Joseph scored at the 1:53 mark of the 3rd to give Bolts Nation hope of a comeback, but an empty-net goal by Duclair at the 19:10 mark put a bow on this one & gave the Panthers the victory.
Vasilevskiy stopped 27 of the 31 shots he saw on the evening.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Florida - Montour - (Bennett) - 8:41
- Florida - PPG - Barkov - (Hornqvist, Gusev) - 12:31
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Sergachev, Palat) - 13:40
- Florida - Huberdeau - (Nutivaara, Bennett) - 19:52
2nd Period
- Florida - Vatrano - (Unassisted) - 17:34
- Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Coleman, Hedman) - 19:15
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Joseph - (Hedman, Point) - 1:53
- Florida - ENG - Duclair - (Gudas) - 19:10
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Florida - Montour - (High Sticking) - 4:57
- Florida - Barkov - (Hooking) - 9:32
- Tampa Bay - TEAM - (Too Many Men) - 11:47
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Johnson - (Hooking) - 9:14
- Tampa Bay - Johnson - (Hooking) - 15:01
3rd Period
- NONE
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Monday night as they welcome the Carolina Hurricanes to Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show at 6:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.
PHOTO : Getty Images