Florida Panthers Give up Three-Goal Lead; Fall to Tampa in Overtime, 5-4

After grabbing a much-deserved win against the Sabres the other night, the Florida Panthers were back at it against their in-state rival.

The Tampa Bay Lightning started off in full-force, hemming the Florida Panthers in their end for a good portion of time.

The Panthers were getting peppered early on, but thanks to Frank Vatrano, none of that really mattered for the time being.

Frank Vatrano picked up a pass from the neutral zone and popped a shot through Louis Domingue’s five-hole to give the Cats a 1-0 lead. A goal Domingue would personally love to have back.

Eleven seconds later and the Panthers struck twice, courtesy of their captain. Aleksander Barkov walked in with enough real-estate to go in on Domingue and squeezed a backhand through his arm. Another goal Domingue would love to have a re-do on.

Everything was perfect in Pantherland until Alex Killorn scored. Moments after Barkov’s goal, Killorn sliced the Panthers’ lead in half off a one-timer, giving the away side some much-needed life.

After a period of play, it was safe to say that despite what was shown on the scoreboard, the Lightning were the far better team in that frame, outshooting their opponents 12-3.

The Panthers quickly realized that they couldn’t go a full sixty minutes playing with that type of effort, so they gradually picked up their play to start the second.

A couple of minutes in and Jonathan Huberdeau regained the Panthers’ two-goal lead. He stripped Mikhail Sergachev of the puck on the blue line and raced down on Louis Domingue, pulling off a silky backhand-forehand move (3-1 FLA).

Things went from bad to worse for Tampa as they gave up two penalties in a span of a minute. This gave the Cats a glorious opportunity (on the 5-on-3) to go three goals ahead, which is exactly what they did.

With some time left on the first penalty, Evgeni Dadonov slotted his twelfth goal of the season to put the Panthers up by three.

Everything was looking great from here until the Lightning answered back with two goals to cap off the second.

First, it was Mathieu Joseph who brought the Bolts within two off a feed from Nikita Kucherov. Then, on a man advantage of their own, Kucherov sniped his eleventh of the season to cut the lead in half (4-3).

The Panthers escaped from the second frame, but only just. They had a lot coming at them to start the third, but did they have it in them to hang on?

Starting the third shorthanded, Colton Sceviour and Aaron Ekblad linked up on a nice little play. Sceviour took Ekblad’s pass and bolted his way on goal only to hit the post.

But from there, the Lightning turned on the afterburners and never looked back. They came close to tying it when Vatrano lost the puck and Matheson blew a tire, but James Reimer had enough in him to deny Cirelli’s shot.

Under the halfway mark in the third and the Bolts finally found an equalizer. Petrovic tried pinning the puck to the side for Reimer to cover, but Paquette pounced on the loose puck and swung a shot on goal which deflected off of Hunt’s skate.

From there, neither team could break the deadlock at either end and overtime was needed to find a winner.

Early in extra time, Frank Vatrano was called for an interference in the Lightning’s zone, sending the Bolts to a crucial power play opportunity to grab the extra point.

The Panthers’ penalty killing unit did a great job of keeping the puck out of their zone, even causing a scare down in the Bolts’ end.

Aaron Ekblad pulled off a toe-drag shorthanded and wired a quick snapshot on goal. Domingue flashed the pad brilliantly and kept his side in play.

Unfortunately, with a matter of seconds remaining on Vatrano’s penalty, Brayden Point found the game-winner on the doorstep.

After grabbing a much-deserved win against the Sabres the other night, the Florida Panthers were back at it against their in-state rival.

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