Tampa Bay Lightning bring down the hammer on the Florida Panthers

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, 8-5 in their third meeting of the 2017-18 season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had a lot of momentum heading into Saturday night’s encounter with the Anaheim Ducks, but that all came to a screeching halt as the Lightning fell 4-1 to the Ducks. Tonight, the Lightning has a new challenge in front of them.

The Bolts made their way to the BB&T Center in Sunrise to take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. After the way things ended in Tampa on Saturday night, the Lightning has a lot to prove against the Panthers.

This is the third time this season these two teams have come together in the center of the ice. The Tampa Bay Lightning brought home the victory in their first encounter, but just one night later, the Panthers would come back with a win of their own, defeating the Lightning 5-4 in Sunrise.

When we broke down tonight’s game in our official preview, we noted one of the biggest keys to a Lightning victory tonight would come from being aggressive with the puck. While the Bolts may have initially spent a little more time in the defensive zone than we would’ve liked, the Bolts were ready to strike.

Just 2:48 seconds into the first period, the Lightning would strike first blood with yet another goal from forward Brayden Point. Point’s goal in the first period was his sixth of the season. Coming into tonight’s encounter with the Panthers, Point was nestled in third place on the team in overall points.

Apparently, Lightning does, in fact, strike twice. As fans have come to expect from them this season, the Bolts kept their feet on the gas and answered with another goal. This time it would be Nikita Kucherov who would find the back of the net. This would be his 13^th goal of the season, extending his league-leading totals.

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Unfortunately, just past the halfway point in the period, the Lightning would hit a bump in the road and some of their momentum would be curtailed as the Panthers answered with a goal from defenseman Aaron Ekblad. The assists on the Ekblad goal would go to Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov.

As Lightning fans are well aware, captain Steven Stamkos has never been good at hiding in the shadows. So, when he put the puck in the back of the net just over four minutes later, Lightning fans weren’t exactly surprised. Excited, yes…surprised…not so much.

Of course, as fate would have it, the Panthers weren’t done throwing monkey wrenches in the Lightning’s victory plans. With less than a minute left in the period, Aleksander Barkov, who picked up an assist on the Ekblad goal, would register a goal of his own, cutting the Lightning’s lead to one once again.

The first period of play was definitely an interesting for the Lightning, but when the buzzer sounded, the Lightning would come out on top in most statistical areas. The Bolts would outshoot the Panthers 13-9 in the first period. The Boys in Blue would also dominate the faceoff circle, going 55-46 over the Kitty Cats.

Sure, there was a goal Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy would like to have back from the first 20 minutes of play, but overall Vasy played a good period. The question would be whether or not he’d be able to keep the Panthers at bay for the next 40 minutes of play. Of course, this would have a lot to do with the team in front of him as well.

The Panthers seemed to have the upper hand at the start of the 2^nd period when forward Jonathan Huberdeau quickly struck, registering his fifth goal of the season, officially tying things up for the Florida Panthers. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the rest of the period was all about the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The first of these goals would come off the stick of Lightning forward Ondrej Palat. Even as he is falling to the ground, he still has the presence of mind to put his stick on the puck and knock it into a wide-open net. The goal really was a thing of beauty.

Palat regains the lead for #GoBolts (4-3): pic.twitter.com/cIEEu58BEU
— The Rat Trick (@FanSidedTheRat) October 31, 2017

At 7:58 in the period, the Lightning would find themselves with the man advantage as Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle found himself with a one-way ticket to the sin bin for Holding against Nikita Kucherov. This would open the door for forward Yanni Gourde to pick up his second goal of the season.

Gourde would deflect the puck in the net off of a nice shot by Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. As we mentioned in our preview for tonight’s game, Sergachev has been firing on all cylinders as of late and has seriously earned his spot in the Lightning lineup this season.

This would be the end of the night for Panthers goaltender James Reimer. After allowing five goals in a period and a half, Panthers Head Coach Bob Boughner would call Reimer to the bench. Replacing him between the pipes would be goaltender Antti Niemi.

Niemi hasn’t exactly had a lot of luck this season against the Tampa Bay Lightning. We’re pretty sure he sees Lightning jerseys in his nightmares. We think former Bolts By The Bay Contributor Dan Herrejon put it best.

He sees Lightning blue sweaters in his nightmares but can’t make out the faces......or the pucks for that matter. #GoBolts
— Dan Herrejon (@DanHerrejon) October 31, 2017

The final Lightning goal of the second period would come from the stick of Lightning forward Vladislav Namestnikov. For Vladdy, this was his fifth goal of the season. Namestnikov is one of those players who has been greatly underappreciated this season. While he has been regularly paired with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, he has been almost lost in the shadow.

While under this “shadow” Namestnikov has been incredible at making plays happen. It will be interesting to see what he’ll be able to accomplish as the season forges on.

Towards the end of the period, things would really start to heat up between the Lightning and the Panthers. Panthers forward Micheal Haley would make the choice to drop the gloves against Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn. Not quite sure why one would pick a fight with someone so significantly larger than you, but it is what it is. Both would head to the sin bin with five-minute Fighting majors.

When the buzzer sounded to end the second period of play, the Lightning would lead the Panthers 6-3. While this is a pretty substantial lead, the Lightning would need to keep the pressure on the Panthers if they wanted to bring home the two points from tonight’s contest.

Once again, the Lightning would outshoot the Panthers; this time by 18-6 for a two-period total of 31-15. This is a rather large difference from the team we saw on the ice on Saturday night. Needless to say, this is a good progression for the Bolts.

When these two teams hit the ice for the third period of play, the Panthers wasted no time in attempting to reduce the Lightning’s lead and gain control of this game. At 5:32 in the period, the Panthers would do just that with a goal from Jamie McGinn. This would serve as his third goal of the season.

Of course, it wouldn’t be long before Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was back on the offensive. Stamkos would pick up his sixth goal of the season with a sweet deflection in front of the net off the shot of Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin. Also receiving an assist on the Stamkos goal was Namestnikov.

Dotchin is another one of those players who doesn’t always get a lot of attention; however, is incredibly good at making plays. Dotchin has yet to register a goal this season; however, if he continues to play the way he has been playing, it will be no time at all before he makes his way to the scoresheet with a goal of his own.

Much like the first 20 minutes of play, the Panthers would strike just past the halfway point in the period. This time, it would be forward Evgenii Dadonov who would pick up his sixth goal of the season.

As the final minutes continued to tick off the clock, the Panthers would attempt to get Niemi to the bench in order to get an extra skater on the ice. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they just couldn’t seem to control the puck long enough to accomplish their goal.

Finally, with less than two minutes in the period, the Cats would get what they desired. Unfortunately for the Panthers, this move would end up biting them in the behind. Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman was able to hit the empty net, picking up his second goal of the season.

When the buzzer would sound to end the final period of play, the Lightning would defeat the Panthers 8-5. For some reason, contests between these two teams always seem to be high scoring. It must be a total nightmare for each team’s netminders.

A goaltender could play the most amazing game in the world, but the stat sheet will tell a completely different story. The important stat here is the win column. This is something Andrei Vasilevskiy seems to have under wraps.

Steven Stamkos had a heck of a night, picking up two goals and an assist for a total of three points in tonight’s contest. This gives him that much more edge when it comes to his league-leading points total this season. If you really think about it, his entire line had a good night tonight.

The combination of Stamkos, Kucherov, and Namestnikov came up with a total of seven points in tonight’s encounter. In addition to Stamkos’ numbers, Kucherov and Namestnikov both picked up a goal and an assist apiece, giving the combination a total four goals and three assists. This has definitely been the workhorse line for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season.