The Lightning defended well at even-strength, but ultimately it was a night where special teams took over.
The first regular season matchup between the Lightning and the Panthers was pretty evenly matched to start, especially in their 5-on-5 play. The cross-state rivals know each other well, and that was evident from the moment the puck dropped.
Together, they've combined to bring the Stanley Cup to the state of Florida, three times in the past five seasons. Anytime these two teams meet, it's a physical game from start to finish.
Sam Reinhart put the Panthers on the board first with a power-play goal, by redirecting the puck off a shot from Aaron Ekblad. The Lightning responded with Nick Paul scoring a goal just a few seconds before the buzzer, to tie the game 1-1.
Where things went wrong..
After a solid first period, the game turned quickly for the Lightning midway through the second period, when the Panthers scored two shorthanded goals on the same power play.
“I don't care who you are, if you say, ‘Oh, we're going to give up two shorthanded and then we're going to get the momentum’ that’s not how it works,” said head coach Jon Cooper.
“I’ve coached in 900-plus games in this league, and I don’t remember us ever allowing two shorties on one power play.”
The last time it happened was against the Penguins on Oct. 27, 2010, prior to Cooper joining the Lightning coaching staff.
“It’s a little deflating, we had a lot of hockey left,” said Brayden Point. “I think we didn’t finish out the second period the way we wanted to. Those two goals got to us a little bit, but in the third I thought we came out and kind of got back to our game and played them pretty solid.”
Lightning's third period push
The Lightning regrouped in the second intermission and began to drive play a bit in the third period.
Point scored his 22nd goal of the season to make it a one-goal game and Nikita Kucherov had a wide open shot that Spencer Knight stopped. The Lightning were able to generate some good looks on the power play in the third period.
“We regrouped, came back in the third and scored one. We had some legit looks and their goalie kicked them out,” said Cooper.
In the end, the Lightning outscored the Panthers 2-0 at 5-on-5, holding them to just 11 scoring chances.
“It is what it is, hockey is a game of bounces, game of momentum, and they capitalized,” said Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “It doesn’t matter what situation it is, you want to execute. Give them credit, their kill was the difference, and ours gave them one. So special teams was a deciding factor tonight.”
The Lightning will have another chance to grab two points when the two teams face each other again on Monday night in Sunrise.