Lightning Smash Panthers

     The Tampa Bay Lightning rolled over the Florida Panthers 6-1 on Monday night at BB&T Center. The Panthers, who began a five-game homestand tonight, have lost two straight following a five-game win streak. The Lightning captured the first annual Governors Cup as they lead the five-game season series 2-0-1.
     Both teams waited until the late stages of the first period to score. Florida(14-19-5) scored on their second power play with 1:04 left in the period when Aleksander Barkov kicked the puck to his right where Sean Bergenheim slammed home a slapshot from the high slot past Ben Bishop for a 1-0 lead.
     The lead lasted just 19 seconds as Tampa Bay(23-11-3) tied the contest with 45 seconds to go. Valtteri Filppula passed the puck from the right wing to the middle and Alex Killorn scooped a backhand shot from the slot by Scott Clemmensen.
     The Bolts, who have won five consecutive games, took their first lead of the game at 3:22 of the second period. Martin St. Louis fed from the left point to Victor Hedman in the high left circle. His snap shot was wide left, bounced off the back boards to Tyler Johnson at the right side of the net and he put the puck in from the blue paint.
     The next goal the Lightning got was on a five-on-three power play as the Panthers received two separate minor penalties at 6:48. Teddy Purcell took a one-time slapshot that went off the leg of Marcel Goc and Filppula steered the loose puck in from the low slot area at 8:01.
     Tampa Bay extended their margin to 4-1 with 7:53 remaining in the second. Ondrej Palat was at the left-circle dot and passed across to St. Louis in the right-circle dot. His one-time slapshot lacked some speed, but it did hit the back of the net for his 16th goal this year.
     In the third period, Nikita Kucherov got a third-chance rebound in the low slot area and sent a bouncy wrist shot that went off the stick of J.T. Brown at 3:40 for a four-goal cushion. Tampa Bay added one more goal 6:24 left as Brown put in a tally in the low slot.
    Clemmensen fell to 4-3-1 as he made 30 saves while Bishop moved his record up to 20-5-2 as he stopped 28 of 29 shots. The Bolts were 1-for-4 on the power play and the Cats were 1-for-3.