RECAP: Panthers 3, Lightning 2

TAMPA – Round 1 of this season’s Battle of Florida goes to the Florida Panthers.

Led by two goals from Sam Reinhart, three assists from Aleksander Barkov and 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky, the Panthers returned from the holiday break with an impressive 3-2 win over the rival Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Wednesday.

Florida (20-12-2) and Tampa Bay (17-14-5) will face off two more times this season.

“They’re big [points],” Barkov said. “We know what the situation is in the standings. We don’t really concentrate on that. We concentrate on our own game. But we know it’s tight and there’s a lot of good teams in our division. Everyone’s battling for points.”

Shortly after the puck dropped in the first period, Bobrovsky set the tone for the Panthers when he stood his ground and shut down Steven Stamkos on a breakaway.

Breaking the ice on the road, Aaron Ekblad put the Panthers on top when he threaded a knuckling point shot through traffic to make it 1-0 at 4:16 with his first goal of the campaign.

"It's a relief, for sure," said Ekblad, who missed the first 16 games of the season after undergoing offseason surgery.

A perfect 10-for-10 on the penalty kill in their previous four games, the Panthers kept that early advantage with two strong kills in the opening 20 minutes. Over the course of those two power plays, Bobrovsky gobbled up all seven shots on goal Tampa Bay fired.

Netting his 20^th goal of the season, Reinhart doubled the lead for the Panthers in the second period when he finished off a slick tic-tac-toe sequence for the top line by firing a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy into the twine from the slot to make it 2-0 at 1:24.

“Just really smart,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of the red-hot Reinhart, who’s scored in each of the last two games. “He gets his body into so many positions.”

The leading point producer in the NHL, Nikita Kucherov, a former Hart Trophy winner, cut the deficit to 2-1 for the Lightning with a strike just 29 seconds into the third period.

Tied for first in the NHL with nine power-play goals, Reinhart showed off his prowess on the other side of special teams when he shrugged off Lightning star defenseman Victor Hedman and lifted a shorthanded goal past Vasilevskiy to put Florida up 3-1 at 3:11.

But just 20 seconds later, Michael Eyssimont benefitted from a fortuitous bounce after a blocked shot and scored just after the power play expired to cut the Lightning’s deficit to 3-2 at 3:21.

“That game was really well played, and then chance after chance,” said Maurice, who became just the third coach in NHL history to be behind the bench for 1,800 games. “It got into some flurry at both ends. The goals through two [periods] should have probably been 7-6 on some of the chances, but both goalies made huge saves. We’ll take it, right?”

Bookending his outstanding performance with yet another stellar save, Bobrovsky kept the Panthers on top when he lunged out of his net to rob Brayden Point on a breakaway with an eye-popping glove save that took the wind out of Tampa Bay’s sails.

That was one of nine high-danger stops for No. 72.

“He’s unreal,” Barkov said of Bobrovsky, who improved to 15-9-1. “He’s giving us a chance to win every game. Today was unreal by him. He stopped a lot of huge scoring chances by them, especially in the third. He gave us a chance, and we took it.”

With 1:16 left in regulation, Barkov drew a tripping penalty to put the Panthers on the power play. After that, Vasilevskiy never even had an opportunity to leave his net to give Tampa Bay the extra attacker as the Panthers held on to the puck as time ticked away.

Given how tight the Atlantic Division is, tonight was a huge four-point swing for Florida.

“Just stick with it,” Barkov said. “We came into this game with the same mindset we had in the Vegas game. Nothing’s going to be easy. Everyone just has to play hard and play a simple game. Your hands are not always there, so you have to use your legs and play as hard as possible and as quick as possible. Today was a very good example of that.”

THEY SAID IT

“Work hard and you’re always going to get your chances. Everyone’s on the same page, all five guys on the ice. When that happens and when everyone’s on the same page and working as hard as possible, you’re going to get your looks.” – Aleksander Barkov on the top line’s performance

“He was insane. He makes a huge save at the end of the second to keep it 2-0, a shot from right between the hash marks. He made some huge saves today. Deflections, rebound control was good. He was on top of his game today.” – Evan Rodrigues on Sergei Bobrovsky

CATS STATS

- The Panthers are 13-0-2 when scoring first this season.

- Aaron Ekblad blocked a team-high two shots on goal.

- Will Lockwood and Niko Mikkola each recorded four hits.

- Sam Reinhart notched his second shorthanded goal of the season.

- Florida led 27-12 in shot attempts when Brandon Montour was on the ice at 5-on-5.

- Aleksander Barkov recorded the 178^th multi-point game of his career, breaking a tie with Olli Jokinen (177) for the fourth most among Finnish-born players in NHL history.

- Florida surrendered just nine shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the first period.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We’ve got a heavyweight matchup coming up in Sunrise.

Heading back home, the Panthers will look to stay hot when they host the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.