Panthers Dethorne Lightning

     The defending Stanley Cup Champions made their first appearance at BB&T Center on Thursday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Florida Panthers 5-2. The Lightning did not have to wait almost two years to show up as the defending champions in Sunrise like they did back in the 2005-06 season. 

     The Lightning had their six-game winning streak snapped by the Cats. The Panthers are playing the Lightning in their next three straight games. The first two contests will be in South Florida and the last one will happen in Tampa.  

     In the first period, Florida(8-1-2) took a 1-0 lead at 8:56. Owen Tippett had the puck behind the Lightning net and backhanded it to Frank Vatrano at the top of the crease. He snapped a shot for his second goal of the year and first goal in the last nine games. 

     The Panthers made it 2-0 at the 8:31 mark of the second period. Patric Hornqvist connected a long pass through the neutral zone for a 2-on-1 breakaway. Jonathan Huberdeau carried it to the right circle and made a cross-ice pass. Alex Wennberg smacked the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy for his third consecutive contest with a goal. Huberdeau compiled his 300th career assist on the play. 

     Tampa Bay(9-2-1) was able to get a power-play goal with 9:05 remaining in the second. Ondrej Palat centered the puck to the high slot. Brayden Point muscled through the slot area and his wrist shot beat Sergei Bobrovsky for his fifth goal this season. Point expanded his point streak to up to seven games. 

     Florida matched it with their own goal on the man advantage with 7:06 left for a two-goal margin. Keith Yandle angled a pass from the top of the zone and Aaron Ekblad at the top left circle and he blasted a one-time slap shot. Aleksander Barkov picked up the secondary assist and tied Olli Jokinen for second all-time in franchise history with his 419th point. 

     The Cats continued the momentum and increased their lead to 4-1 with 5:05 to go. Carter Verhaeghe went into the right corner for the puck. He sent a rink-side pass and it went off the skate of a Lightning defender in the low slot and into the cage for his team-high seventh goal of the season. Wennberg and Ekblad were both credited with assists on the goal. 

     The Bolts responded on the power play just 54 seconds into the third period and trailed 4-2. Victor Hedman made a feed from center ice. Point raced down the right wing and and fired a high snap shot into the roof of the Panthers cage for his second tally of the contest and sixth of the campaign.  

     The Lightning decided to pull their goalie for an extra attacker with over three minutes remaining. It resulted in an empty-net goal by Brett Connolly with one minute left and a Panthers 5-2 lead.