Tampa Bay 5, Florida 4
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 1, 2018
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Florida
Referees:
Tom Chmielewski, Kyle Rehman
Linesmen:
Ryan Galloway, Mark Shewchyk
Attendance:
12361
By Field Level Media
Brayden Point scored on a power play with 1:48 left in overtime as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-4 on Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.
An interference call on Frank Vatrano gave the Lightning the man advantage.
Tampa Bay, which trailed 4-1 in the second period, got the tying goal from Cedric Paquette with 8:19 left in the third, although his shot was saved by Florida's James Reimer and then bounced in off the skate of Panthers forward Dryden Hunt.
Alex Killorn, Mathieu Joseph and Nikita Kucherov also scored for Tampa Bay. It was Kucherov's 11th goal of the season and his fifth on the power play. Kucherov also had two assists.
Vatrano, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov scored for the Panthers. Huberdeau and Dadonov each added an assist.
Dadonov scored on the power play, giving the Panthers at least one goal with the man advantage in 14 of their past 15 games.
Tampa Bay's Louis Domingue made 23 saves to improve his record to 10-4-0. The Lightning have defeated the Panthers in all three meetings this season, two coming in overtime.
Reimer made 34 saves in defeat.
Florida opened the scoring with two first-period goals within 11 seconds of each other, and both came on two-on-one rushes.
The first goal went to Vatrano, who had Jared McCann on his left but opted to snap a wrist shot that beat Domingue stick-side.
Shortly afterward, Barkov stole the puck along the left boards, cut to the net and buried his chance with a backhander.
Tampa made the score 2-1 just 44 seconds later. Killorn took a cross-ice pass from Mikhail Sergachev and one-timed a slap-shot under Reimer's glove.
Goals by Huberdeau and Dadonov gave Florida took a 4-1 lead before Tampa Bay rallied.
Taking advantage of an ill-timed line change by the Panthers, Tampa Bay cut its deficit to 4-2 on an odd-man rush with 13 minutes gone in the second period. Joseph scored on a one-timer from the right circle, taking a pass from Kucherov, who had drawn three defenders.
After Florida's Aaron Ekblad was sent off for a cross-check, Tampa Bay cashed in on a power-play goal by Kucherov, who scored over Reimer's left shoulder with 60 seconds left in the second period.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Tampa Bay |
|
Florida |
Nikita Kucherov 3 |
Points |
Evgenii Dadonov 2 |
Nikita Kucherov 1 |
Goals |
Evgenii Dadonov 1 |
Nikita Kucherov 2 |
Assists |
Evgenii Dadonov 1 |
Nikita Kucherov 1 |
Power Play Goals |
Evgenii Dadonov 1 |
N/A |
Short Handed Goals |
N/A |
Louis Domingue .852 |
Save Percentage |
James Reimer .872 |
Louis Domingue 23 |
Saves |
James Reimer 34 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Shots |
Goals |
Power Play |
Penalty Kill |
Penalty Mins |
Face Offs Won |
Tampa Bay
|
39 |
5 |
2-3 |
3-4 |
10 |
44 |
Florida
|
27 |
4 |
1-4 |
1-3 |
8 |
32 |
Upcoming Games
-
Florida will play their next game at home against Boston. The Panthers have a W/L % of .400 after a win and .400 after a loss.
-
Tampa Bay will play their next game on the road against New Jersey. The Lightning have a W/L % of .632 after a win and .875 after a loss.