Lightning Sweep Panthers

    The Florida Panthers remained winless this season against the Tampa Bay Lightning as they fell 5-4 on Thursday night at Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Bolts had already captured the inaugural Governor's Cup back on December 23 when they won the season series.
     Dan Ellis made his Panthers debut in goal after he was acquired from the Dallas Stars last week for Tim Thomas. The Cats have lost three straight games and eight of their last ten.
     Little time was wasted for Florida(24-35-7) as they scored at 1:44 on their first power play. Brad Boyes stole the puck on the end wall and passed it to Dmitry Kulikov on the left point. He put a soft shot toward the net that was stopped by Tomas Fleischmann and he snapped a shot from the slot area by the stick side of Ben Bishop.
     It became a tie game again at 5:38 as Tampa Bay(35-24-7) evened it up. Valtteri Filppula won the face-off in the left circle and Sami Salo blasted a slapshot from the top left circle by Ellis.
     Quinton Howden. who was called up from the Panthers AHL affiliate in San Antonio, would score his first NHL goal just 12 seconds later to give the Cats a 2-1 lead. Jimmy Hayes advanced the puck down the left-wing boards and Howden put in a wrist shot from an acute angle in the low left circle.
     The Bolts kept up with the Panthers and matched them again at 8:18 of the first. Teddy Purcell moved the biscuit from the left corner to the high slot where Michael Kostka converted on a slapshot.
     Tampa Bay got ahead for the first time in the contest at 12:04 of the second period as Ryan Callahan picked up his first tally with the new club. He made it 3-2 on a wrist shot from close range that was set up by Ondrej Palat.
     They extended their lead to 4-2 with 1:07 left in the period. Steven Stamkos fed the puck from behind the Panthers cage to Tyler Johnson in the right corner. His centering pass went off Ed Jovanovski's left skate and into the Panthers net.
     In the third period, the Lightning converted on a power play with 9:13 remaining. Filppula flicked a cross-ice pass from the right circle to Stamkos and he powered through a one-time slapshot from the low left circle for his 15th goal this season.
     The Cats did get two more goals in the final minute to make it close. With 1:05 to go, the Panthers came in on a two-on-one as Nick Bjugstad passed across to Scottie Upshall and he finished the play with a wrist shot from the edge of the left circle.
     They picked up another tally with 26.5 seconds left when Brandon Pirri put in a wrist shot from the slot area after he received a pass from Alex Petovic at the right point.