Panthers use scoring burst to beat Lightning
SUNRISE, Fla.-- Colton Sceviour, Jared McCann and Vincent Trocheck scored in a span of 2:28 in the third period to rally the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Florida trailed 3-2 in the third period before Sceviour and McCann scored 36 seconds apart to give the Panthers (1-1-0) their first lead.
McCann's goal was originally waved off for goalie interference on Connor Brickley. However, the call was overturned, giving McCann his first goal and Florida its first lead of the season.
Trocheck rammed in a rebound in tight for a 5-3 lead at 8:34.
Evgenii Dadonov and Nick Bjugstad scored a goal and had an assist each for Florida. Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Huberdeau, Micheal Haley, Aleksander Barkov, Radim Vrbata and Brickley had assists.
Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson scored for the Lightning (1-1-0). Steven Stamkos recorded two assists while Kucherov, Namestnikov, Ondrej Palat, Yanni Gourde and Point each had one.
Florida goaltender James Reimer made 26 saves. Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy had 43.
The Lightning shocked the Panthers early, scoring a pair of goals 1:18 apart to quiet the Florida fans in the home opener and first home game under new coach Bob Boughner.
Stamkos was denied by Reimer, but Kucherov flipped in the rebound at 3:30 for his second goal of the year.
Namestnikov also scored his second at 4:48 on the power play when he tapped in a pass from Stamkos.
Florida tallied to cut the lead to 2-1 at 12:18 on the man-advantage when Ekblad's long shot rang off the post and came right back to Dadonov, who zipped in a shot from the slot for his first goal.
The Panthers evened it 2-2 at 1:46 of the second period when Dadonov fed Bjugstad on a long stretch pass. The right winger fired a shot from the inside edge of the right circle for his first goal.
Point scored his second in as many nights when Palat dished him a pass that he shot past Reimer at 13:57 as the Lightning regained the lead.
NOTES: Tampa Bay RW J.T. Brown, an African-American player, bowed his head and raised his right fist during the national anthem. He had the same protest in a preseason game in Sunrise. ... The Lightning scratched C Gabriel Dumont, D Slater Koekkoek and D Andrej Sustr. ... Florida scratched C Denis Malgin, RW Owen Tippett and D MacKenzie Weegar. ... Jonathan Huberdeau recorded his 200th career NHL point on his assist of Evgenii Dadonov's power-play goal.