Jared McCann scored a hat trick as the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Thursday night at BB&T Center. It was the second preseason game between both clubs in Sunrise over the past three days. The Panthers finish the preseason in Montreal and face the Canadiens on Friday night.
Florida(4-0-1) moved out to a 1-0 lead at the 8:17 mark. Pirri sent a lead pass to Radim Vrbata down the left wing. He skated toward the crease, delayed his shot and put the puck by Peter Budaj for a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers extended their margin to 2-1 at 14:24. Alex Petrovic fired a slapshot from the right side which was saved by Budaj. James McCann scored on the rebound from the top of the crease on a snap shot.
Tampa Bay(2-4-0) scored on their second power-play opportunity with 1:05 left in the first period. Steven Stamkos placed a pass to Nikita Kucherov on the right wing. He passed to the middle of the slot where Alex Killorn redirected the puck past James Reimer and closed the gap to 2-1.
In the second period, the Cats made it 3-1 at 13:32. James McGinn was in the left corner and centered the puck for McCann and he scored his second goal from close range.
McCann scored his third goal of the contest midway through the third period at 9:53. He received a pass from Connor Brickley in the neutral zone. McCann skated inside the Lightning zone for a breakaway and put in a wrist shot.
Vladislav Namestnikov popped in a goal from the slot area for the Lightning with 1:24 to go. Florida added an empty-net goal with 28.1 seconds left when Colton Sceviour ripped the puck around the boards in his defensive zone and it rolled into the Bolts cage.
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