Jack Finley’s first NHL goal was the game-winner as the Tampa Bay Lightning bounced back from a blowout loss two days earlier with a 3-1 victory over the rival Florida Panthers on Saturday in Sunrise, Florida.
Early in the third period, Florida defenseman Donovan Sebrango went down, allowing the 23-year-old Finley to skate alone and backhand his first career tally in seven games past Sergei Bobrovsky (17 saves) for a 2-1 lead at 4:09.
Emil Lilleberg and Zemgus Girgensons scored goals for Tampa Bay, which is 8-2-0 in its last 10 games. Goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.
Tampa Bay played without forward Brandon Hagel, who was injured in Wednesday’s 7-3 drubbing of the visiting New York Rangers.
Florida’s Brad Marchand extended his point streak to his last 10 games with a goal, but the home team went 1 for 5 on the power play and came up short with a goal four minutes into the third period.
In what was expected to be a hard-hitting, spirited matchup, Florida’s Sam Bennett, Conn Smythe’s winner last June, elbowed Nikita Kucherov on the game’s first power play, which the Panthers killed behind a strong Bobrovsky net.
However, Kucherov got his revenge at 12:19 when he slipped a pass to Lilleberg, and the Norwegian defenseman beat Bobrovsky for a 1-0 lead.
The Lightning held the territorial advantage over their Atlantic Division rival for most of the rest of the first period, but the opening scrimmages broke out at the buzzer right in front of Bobrovsky as nerves intensified.
In the second period, thanks to the Panthers’ second-man advantage after Girgensons was ejected for charging, Marchand equalized just five seconds later after backhanding his 12th goal in 17 games at 11:31 after a faceoff.
The physical game remained tied and the Lightning held a 17-13 advantage in shots as scoring chances were hard to come by through 40 minutes.
Tampa Bay killed a double minor penalty on Erik Cernak, and Florida responded with a kill of its own after Bennett’s penalty, but couldn’t find the equalizer before Girgensons grabbed the empty net.
–Field level media
