The Backcheck: Winning streak snapped by Florida

Despite a strong push in the third period, the Tampa Bay Lightning saw their three-game win streak come to an end Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers at AMALIE Arena.

The Panthers got on the board early when Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring 4:16 into the first period with his first goal of the season.

After Sam Reinhart was kicked out of the faceoff circle in Tampa Bay’s defensive zone, Evan Rodrigues stepped in and won the draw back to the point. Collecting the puck at the blue line, Gustav Forsling sent a D-to-D pass to Ekblad, who quickly snapped a shot through traffic that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a 1-0 game.

Going into the second period in a 1-0 hole, the Bolts surrendered another goal in the opening five minutes of a frame when Reinhart netted his 20th goal of the season to give Florida a 2-0 lead just 1:24 into the period.

Following a Reinhart pass to the corner for Aleksander Barkov, the Panthers leading goal scorer went to the net and regained possession of a slick feed from Rodrigues and fired a shot into the top right corner for the lone goal of the second period.

Entering the final frame trailing by two, the Bolts got on the board just 29 seconds into the period when Nikita Kucherov buried his 300th career goal to make it a 2-1 game.

Nick Perbix jumped up into the offensive zone and collected a loose puck near the left circle before sending a pass to the point for Victor Hedman. After the big defenseman’s shot was blocked in front, Kucherov was right there to jump on the loose puck and quickly fire his 24thgoal of the season past Sergei Bobrovsky.

As the Bolts continued to gain momentum and push for the game-tying goal, the team earned a big power-play opportunity at the 1:27 mark of the third. But the Lightning were unable to seize the moment and surrendered a shorthanded goal as Reinhart netted his second goal of the game with 16:49 remaining in regulation.

The shorthanded goal didn’t faze Tampa Bay much with Mikey Eyssimont quickly responding and getting his team back within one just 20 seconds later. Skating into the offensive zone on the right side, Eyssimont’s initial shot was blocked, but he quickly rifled his own rebound past Bobrovsky to make it a 3-2 game.

Unfortunately for the Lightning, that would be the final goal of the contest with Reinhart’s shorthanded tally going down as the game-winner.

Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal for the Bolts and made 28 saves on 31 shots against. Mikhail Sergachev missed a third-straight game with a lower-body injury, but will look to return to game action over the weekend.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Nikita Kucherov got the Lightning on the board with his 300th career goal.

- Kucherov became the ninth active player to hit the 300-goal mark in fewer than 700 career games. Kucherov, Steven Stamkos (550 GP), Vincent Lecavalier (773 GP) and Martin St. Louis (807 GP) are the only players to record more than 300 goals in a Lightning uniform.

- Kucherov’s goal was his 24th of the season and 58th point on the campaign.

- Victor Hedman picked up his 34th point of the season (5-29—34) with the primary assist on Kucherov’s goal.

- Hedman has 17 points over his last 17 games (2-15—17).

- Nick Perbix recorded the secondary assist on Kucherov’s goal, marking his eighth point of the season (0-8—8).

- Mikey Eyssimont scored his sixth goal of the campaign with the Lightning’s second goal of the contest and has 12 points on the season (6-6—12).

- Brandon Hagel recorded the primary assist on Eyssimont’s goal, his 19th helper and 29thpoint of the year (10-19—29).

- Darren Raddysh collected the secondary helper on Eyssimont’s goal for his 10th point of the year (0-10—10).

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper: “It’s a Christmas crowd. It’s a rival…It’s a little disappointing coming out of the break at home here and to let a cross-state rival come out and beat us on our home ice. That’s disappointing.”

- Brayden Point: “They’re skilled and you give them chances, they’ll capitalize. They made some nice plays on their goals. The shorthanded one hurts. Those are always tough to give up, especially at that time in the game. For the most part, we did good things, but still lots to clean up.”

- Jon Cooper: “You can’t give up a shorthanded goal. It ends up being the game-winner. That’s unacceptable on our end. We just had a little bit of a meltdown there at the end and it cost us.”

- Jon Cooper on Nikita Kucherov: “I don’t think anybody studies (the game) more than he does. He’s got an impeccable work ethic to get better and we see that all the time. It’s on an everyday basis. He’s clearly been our MVP, and in my book the MVP of the season so far, if you’re giving one out pre-Christmas. But he works at it, that’s what’s impressive. He doesn’t take anything for granted.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Sergei Bobrovsky

2. Sam Reinhart

3. Aleksander Barkov

Lightning Look Ahead

- Saturday, December 30 vs. New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Sunday, December 31 vs. Montreal Canadiens, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Tuesday, January 2 at Winnipeg Jets, 8 p.m. ET, Canada Life Centre