Bennett took a shot off what appeared to be his hand or wrist early in the second period

The Florida Panthers saw one of its key players leave Game 2 early with an injury.

Panthers center Sam Bennett left Tuesday’s game less than five minutes into the second period and did not immediately return.

Bennett took a Brandon Montour slapshot off what appeared to be the outside of his left hand/wrist with 15:13 to go in the period.

He immediately skated to the Panthers bench and went down the tunnel to the locker room.

During the third period, the Panthers announced that Bennett would not return to the game due to suffering an upper-body injury. 

Bennett opened the scoring in Game 2 when he scored off a Matthew Tkachuk rebound just over six minutes into the first period.

Anton Lundell took Bennett's spot on the second line and Kevin Stenlund moved up to Lundell's spot. 

As deep as the Panthers are with their forward group, losing one of their top two centers for any extended period of time could create a big problem for the Cats. 

Florida leads their opening round series with Tampa Bay 1-0.

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