Lightning's stars shine in win over rival Panthers

Field Level Media|published: Sat 16th March, 21:13 2024

Feb 17, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers scuffle on the boards in the third period at Amalie Arena. credits: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Steven Stamkos scored two goals and dished two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 47 saves as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers 5-3 on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Florida's Sam Reinhart scored twice and ranks second in the NHL with 48. He also leads the league with 27 power-play goals.

Stamkos, with 27 goals this season and 542 for his career, passed Stan Mikita for 33rd place on the NHL's all-time list. Stamkos needs three more tallies to notch his ninth season of at least 30 goals.

Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov added an empty-netter, his 40th goal of the season.

The Lightning have won three straight games — all against teams in playoff position — and got one goal each from Michael Eyssimont and Darren Raddysh.

Florida, which had won four straight games in its rivalry with Tampa Bay, also got a goal from Matthew Tkachuk.

Sergei Bobrovsky, who leads the Eastern Conference with 32 wins, made 11 saves in a losing effort.

Florida, which has lost two straight games, fell behind 2-0 in the first period.

Stamkos opened the scoring 20 seconds into the game on a two-on-one rush as his pass went in off the skate of Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour.

Eyssimont made it 2-0 on a breakaway at 13:21. His initial shot was stopped, but he then shoved the rebound in between Bobrovsky's pads.

The Lightning increased their lead to 4-0 in the second. First, Raddysh took a cross-ice pass from Anthony Duclair before scoring on a high shot from the right circle at 3:02. About four minutes later, Stamkos scored on a five-on-three power-play one-timer from the left circle.

But the Panthers battled back, closing the second period with just a 4-2 deficit as Tkachuk scored short-handed on a three-on-one breakaway at 8:23 and Reinhart came through with a power-play rebound goal at 11:55.

Toward the end of the second period, the Panthers had a five-on-three power play for 53 seconds. However, the Lightning killed off both of those penalties.

The Panthers cut their deficit to 4-3 on Reinhart's second goal with 3:52 left in the third.

But Kucherov's empty-netter sealed the game with 1:32 left.

—Field Level Media

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