Palat nets winner as Lightning slip past Panthers
TAMPA, Fla. -- Ondrej Palat scored in the final minutes and the Lightning continued to charge up the Eastern Conference standings.
Palat tipped in an Andrej Sustr shot with 2:23 left to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 victory against the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
The Lightning improve to 10-2-3 in the past 15 games to remain in contention for the final playoff spot, three points behind Toronto.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 32 saves to improve to 5-0-1 in his past six starts. Nikita Kucherov scored on the power play while Yanni Gourde notched a shorthanded goal.
Jaromir Jagr and Mark Pysyk scored for Florida while James Reimer stopped 31 shots as the Panthers fell to 1-7-1 in the past nine games.
The Panthers jumped out to a two-goal lead with goals by Jagr and Pysyk less than three minutes apart late in the first period.
Ten seconds after a Florida power play expired, a puck skidded off to the side where Jagr was able to chip the puck with his long reach and the puck hit the far post and caromed in to the net at 16:32. In the final minute of the first, Pysyk sent a shot from the center point and appeared to deflect in front and found the top far corner with 47 seconds remaining.
Tampa Bay found a boost of energy in the second period, fueled by a power play chance generated when Alex Petrovic took an extra call for roughing on the play. On the ensuing man advantage, Kucherov delivered a one-timer from the right circle off a feed from Victor Hedman at 3:43.
As the intensity started to ramp up, the Lightning pulled even while killing a penalty on a strong effort by Gourde, who fought his way up ice and with Vincent Trocheck draped on his back, pushed forward and slipped a shot under the pads of Reimer at 10:11 for his first career NHL goal.
Tampa Bay would then survive a 56-second 5-on-3 chance for Florida midway through the period to keep the game tied heading to the third period.
NOTES: Tampa Bay recalled C Matthew Peca from Syracuse of the American Hockey League with Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette all out with leg injuries. ... C Greg McKegg, who was claimed off waivers from Florida by the Lightning on Feb. 27, was in the lineup against his old team after being scratched the prior two games. ... Florida G James Reimer started on consecutive nights for the first time this season. ... The Panthers scratched LW Shawn Thornton, D Jakub Kindl, C Michael Sgarbossa and G Robert Luongo. ... Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed more than one goal for just the second time in the past six starts since Ben Bishop was traded to Los Angeles. ... Florida, which played at home on Friday, had travel issues and flew to Tampa on Saturday morning. ... RW Nikita Kucherov set a career high with 31 goals. ... Florida played the final two periods with four defensemn after Aaron Ekblad and Alex Petrovic left in the second. Denis Malgin was also injured in the second and did not return.