Following their spirited battle on Tuesday, it was pretty clear from the moment the puck dropped that both the Panthers and Lightning would ease up a little bit in tonight's matchup. After all, it is just the preseason and there's plenty of head-to-head battles ahead when the points will count.
With that being said, the first period came and went without much in terms of nastiness. Instead, both teams seemed content to just cycle through their systems. While there weren't many shots to speak of, Spencer Knight did come up with one big stop to close out the opening 20 minutes.
Zooming into the zone on a 2-on-1 break, Taylor Raddysh spun around and sent a pass right onto the stick of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on the doorstep. Tracking the action the whole way through, Knight then swiftly dropped down into the butterfly and denied the re-direction attempt.
But in the second period, the Lightning got on the board after Anthony Cirelli slipped behind the defense, drove to the net and sent a shot right through Knight's five-hole to make it 1-0 at 3:25.
Making an impact in his preseason debut, Joe Thornton, who is preparing for his 24th season in the NHL, evened the score for the Panthers near the midway point of the period when he batted a rebound over Brian Elliott after a wrist shot from Owen Tippett to make it a 1-1 game at 9:49.
"Joe does a lot of good things with the puck," Quenneville said. "He makes plays, sees plays, sustains plays. He's eager to be competitive from shift to shift. That's all that we could ask for."
Getting that goal back in a hurry for the Lightning, Corey Perry, a fellow member of the 1,000-plus games in the NHL club along with Thornton, took advantage of some buildup around the crease and snuck a shot past Knight from the near post to bring the score to 2-1 at 10:21.
Netting his second goal of the middle frame, Perry added to Tampa Bay's lead when he roofed a backhand shot over Knight's outstretched right pad on a breakaway to make it 3-1 at 17:36.
As planned, Christopher Gibson took over for Knight after 40 minutes of play were in the books.
With a pair of penalties carrying over from the second period, Steven Stamkos scored twice for the Lightning during their 5-on-3 advantage less than a minute into the third. After blasting home a one-timer from the left circle to make it 4-1, he did it again just 26 seconds later to make it 5-1.
"You put that team on the power play enough times and they're going to find a way to score," Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg said. "We've got to stay out of the box against them. We know that. We'll regroup, look at film and see them Saturday."
Staying hot, Tippett earned his second point of the night and third goal in his last two games when he took a pass from Eetu Luostarinen and fired a shot past Elliott make it 5-2 at 12:19.
"Tippy has been dangerous," Quenneville said. "He's had some great looks. His shots have been very deceptive in a lot of ways. He's got a lot of power behind it. It's a great asset for him."
With 1:12 left in regulation, Pat Maroon scored to lock in the 6-2 win for the Lightning.
Here are five takeaways from Thursday's loss in Tampa…
