The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning met on the Gulf Coast on Sunday afternoon for the first time since they met in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Florida last took the series in five games back in April, and continued as they took the first of four in the Battle of Florida with a 4-2 final.
Shots were almost even in the first 15 minutes of the frame, but it was the Panthers who scored first.
In a cycle in the Lightning zone, the puck was worked back into the zone, where Ekblad’s one-timer found Sam Reinhart with cars ahead, and redirected the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiiy for his 21st of the season at 15:49.
Lightning got the first one a few seconds before the snapping sound was heard. While in front, the Bolts broke the puck, and before the Panthers defenders could get back to their goal, as Victor Hedman found Nick Paul behind the door.
Paul made the Panthers pay with less than five seconds left, and the two teams went to the locker room tied at 10 apiece.
Florida got into penalty trouble in the second half, but held the Lightning without a shot on both of their penalties.
Not only did the cats get a shot while they were killing, but they scored goals in the process.
AJ Greer stripped Nikita Kucherov as the Lightning tried to gain ground, and he and Tomas Nosek were off to the races.
In a 2-on-one, Nosek’s shot was saved, but Gerer was there on the follow-up to be squeezed by Vasilevskiiy on the short side.
However, they didn’t end up scoring short-handed, as Conor Geekie tried to bring down Anthony Cirelli, Eetu Luostarinen created a turnover in midfield.
Forty-two seconds after their first shorthanded goal of the game, Luostarinen was the only one with a chance to break out and beat Vasilevskiiy on the shoulder to make it 3-1 at 11:10 of the second frame.
It’s not over until it’s over, and the Lightning made a hockey game a few minutes into the third period.
With a quick out, Jake Guentzel found Brayden Point coming up the middle at speed. Feeding him short, he finished off a breakaway opportunity past the leg of Spencer Knight to cut the deficit to one goal at 3:26 of the third.
Florida tied the game with just over 30 seconds left in the game when Tampa Bay brought in another extra attacker.
Dmitry Kulikov split the puck from Brandon Hagel as the Lightning gained possession, and as the Panthers broke the puck, Reinhart was first to it in the neutral zone, and slammed it into the empty net to make it 4-2.
The Panthers took the first of the home-and-home series and regained the lead in the Atlantic Division.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow night from the Amerant Bank Arena.
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