Panthers Push By Lightning

     The Florida Panthers overtook the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 at Amalie Arena on Thursday night. Both teams will face each other on Saturday in Sunrise for their final preseason contests. 

     Tampa Bay rushed out to a 1-0 lead at the 2:54 mark of the first period on a slap shot by Victor Hedman. Florida tied it up 1-1 on a Kevin Stenlund wrist shot at 5:04. 

     In the second period, the Bolts regained the lead 2-1 on a Nikita Kucherov wrist shot at 1:16. The Cats evened it 2-2 with a tip-in goal by Eetu Luostarinen on the power play with 9:01 remaining in the period. Steven Stamkos scored a power-play goal on a snap shot with 6:59 to go in the second for a Lightning 3-2 lead. Nick Cousins answered back for the Panthers with 5:43 left in the frame to make it 3-3. 

     Florida finally got the first lead of the contest 4-3 at the 10:07 mark of the third period as Justin Sourdif poked the puck into the cage. They expanded it to 5-3 just 91 seconds later when Ryan Lomberg put in a snap shot. Stenlund added his second tally of the game with 42 seconds remaining in the third for a three-goal margin.