@jayRecher
Well, that wasn't pretty.
The visiting Florida Panthers scored four goals in the 2nd period en route to a 6-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night at Amalie Arena.
The teams were even at 1-1 after twenty minutes, but then things went sideways for Tampa Bay.
Owen Tippett, Frank Vatrano, Anthony Duclair and Alexsander Barkov all scored in the middle stanza for the Panthers.
Tippett scored after a turnover by Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta in the defensive zone to make it 2-1. Vatrano put the Panthers up 3-1 when he scored on a penalty shot after being taken down by Luke Schenn on a breakaway. Duclair made it 4-1 after he scored on an unbelievable wraparound move that you only see in video games. Tampa Bay's Alexander Volkov made it 4-2 when he stormed down the left wing and snapped one quickly past Driedger, but Barkov got that one right back with a beautiful backhand-to-forehand move that gave Florida a 5-2 lead.
The Bolts didn't cave and made it a game with Volkov notching his second of the game and Tyler Johnson burying a 2-on-1 feed from Mathieu Joseph to make it 5-4 late in the 2nd, but that's the closest they would come as former Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman scored early in the 3rd period to put the game out of reach.
The Lightning opened the scoring at the 6:24 mark of the 1st period on a play that never gets old.
After some great work from Ondrej Palat down low, Erik Cernak found the Captain in his office and he rocketed a one-timer past a sprawling Driedger to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers weren't demoralized and responded just 92 seconds later.
Following a dump-in that seemed to slow down right before it got to Tampa Bay netminder McElhinney, Panthers forward Patric Hornqvist beat him to the puck and fed it to Jonathan Huberdeau in front, and the Florida star deposited the puck into the net before McElhinney could scurry back to tie the score at one apiece.
McElhinney finished the night with 15 saves. Driedger stopped 27 of the 31 shots he saw on the evening.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Cernak, Palat) - 6:24
- Florida - Huberdeau - (Hornqvist, Weegar) - 7:56
2nd Period
- Florida - Tippett - (Luostarinen) - 4:59
- Florida - PENALTY SHOT - Vatrano - 8:39
- Florida - Duclair - (Verhaeghe, Barkov) - 10:23
- Tampa Bay - Volkov - (McDonagh) - 11:42
- Florida - Barkov - (Verhaeghe, Stralman) - 12:36
- Tampa Bay - Volkov - (Maroon, Smith) - 15:50
- Tampa Bay - Johnson - (Joseph, Sergachev) - 16:38
3rd Period
- Florida - Stralman - (Huberdeau, Gudas) - 0:59
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Johnson - (Holding) - 8:54
- Florida - Yandle - (Interference) - 17:48
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Tripping) - 0:47
- Florida - Ekblad - (Interference) - 1:25
- Florida - Ekblad - (Hooking) - 18:14
3rd Period
- Florida - MAJOR - Verhaeghe - (Fighting) - 4:06
- Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Smith - (Fighting) - 4:06
- Florida - MAJOR - Gudas - (Fighting) - 13:03
- Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Gourde - (Fighting) - 13:03
- Tampa Bay - Smith - (Roughing) - 13:17
- Florida - Yandle - (Hooking) - 16:45
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Thursday night as they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars. Puck drop is slated for 8:30pm with the pregame starting at 8:00pm on NewsRadioWFLA.