"It's been incredible," Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said of the team's undefeated run, which began all the way back on March 29. "The guys we have in the locker room are all great people. … We come to the rink and have fun. We've got a heck of hockey club in there."
Taking matters into his own hands to make sure the streak would stay alive, Montour lifted the Panthers to a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs less than 24 hours ago on Saturday when he flew down the ice and poked a slick pass from Mason Marchment into the cage at 2:26 of overtime.
Helping the Panthers climb out of a 2-0 deficit to get to the extra frame, Aleksander Barkov and Claude Giroux each scored for the Panthers in the second period to make it 2-2, while Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves - including 16 high-danger stops - to earn his NHL-leading 39th win.
"Bob was great," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of Bobrovsky, who is 12-0-0 over his last 12 decisions. "He's the reason we got where we were. We pushed back a bit in the second and got ourselves back in the game, but Bob kept us in it. Their goalie was really good, too. It was a good hockey game. Two good teams, and it took overtime to decided it."
With Bobrovsky getting the nod last night, Spencer Knight is likely to be between the pipes for the Panthers against the Lightning. Compiling an 18-8-3 record this season, the 21-year-old rookie has gone a perfect 5-0-0 with a .939 save percentage over his last five appearances.
In terms of individual milestones to keep an eye on, Jonathan Huberdeau's 114 points place him only two behind Edmonton's Connor McDavid in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, while Barkov needs just one more goal to join Pavel Bure as the only Panthers to ever join the 40-goal club.
Always up to the challenge in this rivalry matchup, Huberdeau (44 points in 41 games) and Barkov (33 points in 37 games) have combined for 77 points in their career against the Bolts.
"We go into games with a lot of confidence," Giroux said. "I feel after each win we say to each other that we know we can play better. Everything's going great right now. We're getting some bounces, guys are making some plays and we're having fun. We've just got to keep going."
Sitting at 48-22-8 and holding onto a three-point lead over the Bruins for the third spot in the Atlantic Division - which the Panthers locked up earlier this week - the Lightning are cruising into tonight's matchup on the heels of a pair of very convincing victories in their own building.
After trouncing the Maple Leafs by a score of 8-1 on Thursday, they secured a 6-2 win over the Predators on Saturday in which Steven Stamkos (one goal, two assists) and Nikita Kucherov (one goal, two assists) each tallied three points, while Brian Elliott made 19 saves in the crease.
"Balanced scoring - it's pivotal and if you want to go anywhere in the playoffs you need more than a couple of guys scoring," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after the win. "I look at the guys that have 20 or more [goals] or close to 20, and it's a big reason for our success."
Up front, Stamkos, who has posted multiple points in each of his last five games, leads Tampa Bay in goals (35) and points (93). After him, five other players have registered at least 20 goals: Brayden Point (27), Alex Killorn (25), Ross Colton (22), Kucherov (21) and Victor Hedman (20).
Given that Elliott started last night, it's likely that Andrei Vasilevskiy will get the nod against the Panthers. Owning a 36-18-5 record with a .917 save percentage this season, he's gone 12-9-1 with a .914 save percentage in his career against Florida, including going 1-1-0 this campaign.
Facing off for the fourth and final time this season, the Panthers have posted a 2-0-1 record against the Lightning, including a 9-3 victory in their last meeting all the way back on Dec. 30.
Making FLA Live Arena one of the toughest places to play for opposing teams in the NHL, the Panthers' stellar 34-6-0 record at home places them behind only the Red Wings (36 in 1995-96) and Flyers (36 in 1975-76) for the most victories on home ice in a single season in NHL history.
"These games are going to be really hard down the stretch here," Brunette said. "It's kind of good to get tonight, and then tomorrow will be another hard one, and then Tuesday [at Boston] will be another hard one. I think that'll be good for our group. We have to clean up a few things."
