The Backcheck: Bolts lose big to Panthers

In the words of Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, “For 24 seconds, it was a hell of a game for the home fans.”

After that, it was a night to forget for a Bolts team that suffered a 9-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, marking just the sixth time in franchise history that the club has surrendered nine goals against on home ice.

The Lightning started the game with a bang when Brandon Hagel opened the scoring just 24 seconds into the first period.

After Anthony Cirelli collected the puck in the defensive zone and skated towards the Tampa Bay blue line, he feathered a perfect backhand pass into the neutral zone for a streaking Hagel to gain possession and blow by Niko Mikkola before beating Sergei Bobrovsky through the five hole for his 20^th goal of the season.

But the Lightning were unable to sustain the early success and went on to surrender four consecutive goals in a span of 11:34 to head to the locker room in a 4-1 hole after 20 minutes.

Florida tied the game at the 7:01 mark of the first when a Brandon Montour shot from the point was deflected on the way to the net and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a 1-1 game.

Sam Bennett gave the Panthers its first lead of the night with 7:32 remaining in the opening frame after a Tampa Bay turnover at its own blue line ended up on the stick of Matthew Tkachuk, who sold a shot and fed Bennett at the right circle for a quick one-timer that found the back of the net to make it a 2-1 game.

A little more than five minutes later, Kevin Stenlund jumped on a puck at the left circle and fired a quick shot through the five hole of Vasilevskiy to push the Florida lead to 3-1 with 2:16 remaining in the opening period.

Just 54 seconds later, Gustav Forsling threw a shot on goal from the left point that went off the glove of Vasilevskiy and into the back of the net. The Lightning challenged the play for goaltender interference after Carter Verhaeghe made contact with Vasilevskiy’s glove, but the call on the ice was upheld, sending Tampa Bay to the penalty kill.

Opening the second period on the kill, the Bolts fell into a 5-1 hole just 23 seconds in when Tkachuk scored his 19^th goal of the season off a pass from Aleksander Barkov.

Only 1:14 later, the Lightning were back on the penalty kill after Tyler Motte was assessed a minor for roughing. Fifty-two seconds into the man advantage, Tkachuk added his second power-play goal of the night, extending the Panthers lead to 6-1.

Going into the third period looking to gain some positive momentum for the team’s upcoming game against the Ottawa Senators this Monday, Tampa Bay surrendered another three goals in the span of 4:09 with Carter Verhaeghe scoring twice at the 1:05 and 4:09 marks, along with Bennett lighting the lamp with a power-play goal at the 1:56 mark.

The Lightning were able to find the back of the net one more time before the final horn sounded with Nikita Kucherov sending a pass to Brayden Point, who beat Bobrovsky with a move to the backhand for his 27^th goal of the season. That would be the final goal of a contest.

Bolts by the Numbers

• Brandon Hagel scored his 20^th goal of the season and extended his career-long point streak to nine games (7-7—14).
• Anthony Cirelli picked up the lone assist on Hagel's goal and extended his point streak to five games (2-4—6), one game shy of tying his career high.
• Brayden Point scored his 27^th goal of the season and moved to 57 points on the year (27-30—57).
• Nikita Kucherov recorded the primary assist on Point’s goal and extended his point streak to 10 games (8-11—19). Kucherov continues to lead the NHL with 94 points this season (36-58—94).
• Victor Hedman picked up the secondary assist on Point’s goal and has found the scoresheet in eight of his last 10 games (1-9—10).

Bolts Quotes

• Jon Cooper: “We can't look behind us. We got beat by a good team tonight. Don't like the way it happened. This team's got a lot of pride in that locker room. It happens. I've been pretty fortunate not to see something like that very many times in my career, but it does happen. Nobody's immune to it. It's how you respond. That's the great challenge we have in front of us.”
• Steven Stamkos: “I've been on both sides of these types of nights. It's tough when you're on this side. The response, we'll see where we are...We know how we have to respond after an embarrassing loss like that.”
• Cooper: “Whether we lost 4-3 or 9-2, the only thing that's stinging is your pride. But we got zero points out of the game. For us to keep our push going, we need points. We didn't get any tonight. The score doesn't matter. It's how we respond to Monday and that's a cool challenge ahead. Let's see what we've got.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Sam Bennett
2. Carter Verhaeghe
3. Matthew Tkachuk

Lightning Look Ahead

• Monday, February 19 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Thursday, February 22 vs. Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Saturday, February 24 at New York Islanders, 2 p.m. ET, UBS Arena - Buy Tickets