Panthers defeat Lightning, move into second in Central

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers moved into second place in the Discover Central Division when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 at BB&T Center on Saturday.

The Panthers and Lightning, who will face each other in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, complete their regular seasons here Monday. The Panthers need one point to secure the No. 2 seed.
Alex Wennberg got his second NHL hat trick, and Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for Florida (36-14-5), which has won five straight games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves.
"It would be great (to finish second), but we're just looking to win the next game," Wennberg said. "Of course, you can look at the standings, but I feel like the focus is just to play the game and do what we can do. We'll see what happens. Obviously, we're going to do our best and we're excited to see where it's going to take us."
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for Tampa Bay (36-16-3), which lost 5-2 to the Dallas Stars on Friday.
The teams combined for 31 penalties, including 19 in the third period, and 154 penalty minutes.
"These are games 55 and 56, not Games 1 and 2 of the playoffs," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I'm sure guys would be a little more careful than they would in situations like this. The physicality may stay the same, but maybe the recklessness won't be there as much."
Wennberg gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 11:44 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
Bennett made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 3:07 of the second period. He has scored 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 10 games since being acquired in a trade April 12 after scoring 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 38 games with the Calgary Flames.
"Amazing, his production," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "That line together (Huberdeau, Owen Tippett), they look for one another. They had a couple pretty looks there that could have easily gone in. He's really been effective in a lot of ways. He brings a nice element to our team in the middle of the ice."

Luke Schenn cut it to 2-1 at 4:52 of the second period, and Wennberg pushed the lead to 3-1 at 12:54 when his pass from behind the net deflected high in the air off the stick of Vasilevskiy and landed just inside the post after Erik Cernak couldn't knock it away.
"Those guys competed hard and played well," Tampa Bay defenseman David Savard said. "We just had a couple of weird bounces that kind of pushed the score in a different way. I think we did a lot of good things tonight."

Huberdeau made it 4-1 at 14:53 with a backhand from the slot.
Wennberg completed his second hat trick of the season to extend the lead to 5-1 at 13:38 of the third period, scoring with a long wrist shot that deflected off Savard's stick.
Wennberg has scored an NHL career-high 16 goals this season, one more than he scored in his three previous seasons combined with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
"Very pleased with his effort, his game," Quenneville said. "The production part, it's kind of the bonus plan with him because he's reliable defensively, he's always in the right play. And now if he starts thinking of his shot there, he can surprise goalies because he's got a quick release and a lot of pace on his shot as well. Nice night when they went in."
NOTES:Tampa Bay played without defensemen Victor Hedman (lower body), Ryan McDonagh (upper body) and Jan Rutta (lower body), who are each day to day. … Bennett's 15 points are the most by a player in his first 10 games with the Panthers. … Wennberg became the seventh Florida player to have multiple hat tricks in a season, joining Noel Acciari, Aleksander Barkov, Pavel Bure, David Booth, Olli Jokinen and Ray Sheppard.