@jayRecher
Round 1 of the Sunshine State Showdown goes to Florida.
Brandon Montour, Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell & Anthony Duclair each scored and Spencer Knight made 30 saves as the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
The Panthers led 1-0 into the 3rd period, but after Brayden Point scored the equalizer at the 2:36 mark, Florida really turned up the heat to take home the W.
Point rifled a shot from the top of the right circle that slightly deflected off of Florida defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and past Knight to tie the score at 1-1, but Barkov found a loose puck in front of Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and fired it home just 64 seconds later to put Florida up 2-1.
Lundell scored his first NHL goal at 13:19 to extend the Panthers lead and Duclair scored an empty-netter with 2:06 left to seal the deal for the Cats.
Montour opened up the scoring for the Panthers with a goal at the 6:12 mark of the 2nd period, one second after the expiration of a holding penalty on Lightning winger Alex Killorn.
The Florida defenseman found a loose puck at the right circle & quickly snapped one past Vasilevskiy to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Tampa Bay had a couple of power play opportunities in the middle stanza but were unable to cash in on Knight.
Neither team scored in the first period, with the Panthers outshooting the Lightning 12-10.
Corey Perry nearly scored within the first two minutes of the game, but former Bolts defenseman Radko Gudas knocked the puck out of the air to keep it from going into the Florida net.
The Lightning had a glorious chance to score on a 5-on-3 power play towards the tail end of the period, but the best chance came at the end when Lundell came out of the penalty box and was stoned by Vasilevskiy on a breakaway.
Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in defeat.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
NONE
2nd Period
- Florida - Montour - (Reinhart, Lundell) - 6:12
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Hedman, Rutta) - 2:36
- Florida - Barkov - (Verhaeghe) - 3:40
- Florida - Lundell - (Reinhart, Marchment) - 13:19
- Florida - ENG - Duclair - (Barkov, Forsling) - 17:54
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Slashing) - 4:35
- Florida - Thornton - (Slashing) - 15:10
- Florida - Lundell - (Holding) - 15:36
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Killorn - (Holding) - 4:11
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Hooking) - 7:01
- Florida - Tippett - (Elbowing) - 10:57
- Florida - Reinhart - (Slashing) - 16:38
3rd Period
- Florida - Verhaeghe - (Tripping) - 9:49
- Florida - Connauton - (Cross Checking) - 14:02
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Saturday night as they welcome the Colorado Avalanche to Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.
Photo: Getty Images North America
PHOTO : Getty Images