Lightning at Panthers
The Tampa Bay Lightning look to build off a successful homestand when they start a three-game road trip against teams out of playoff position Saturday night against the Sunshine State-rival Florida Panthers. The Lightning won four of five games on their homestand after edging Buffalo 5-4 on Thursday, but have some injury concerns as they head out on the road, where they are 7-3-1 on the season.
Ryan McDonagh, who has played at a Norris Trophy candidate level with 18 points and a plus-17 rating over the first 26 games, suffered an apparent head injury in Thursday’s contest and is considered day-to-day while fellow top-four defenseman Anton Stralman (upper body) is still out. Tampa Bay has won four straight - two this season - and six of the last seven meetings with the Panthers, who knocked off Buffalo 3-2 in overtime on captain Aleksander Barkov’s goal Friday. It was Florida’s third win in nine games, but the Panthers gained a point for the third time in four contests (2-1-1) as they attempt to climb out of the Atlantic Division cellar. Left wing Jonathan Huberdeau has done his part recently for Florida, recording a goal and eight assists over the last four games to take over the team lead with 26 points.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), FS Florida
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (18-7-1): Rookie Erik Cernak (four assists, plus-6 rating, in nine games) has filled in nicely for Stralman and Slater Koekkoek, who played well when Victor Hedman was injured, would get the call if McDonagh can’t go. Right wing Nikita Kucherov boasts three goals and 14 assists during his eight-game point streak and leads the team with 35 points - two more than linemate Brayden Point (team-high 18 goals). Louis Domingue has started nine straight games since No. 1 goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (foot) went down, but could give way to rookie Connor Ingram at some point on the trip.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (10-10-4): Evgenii Dadonov scored his 11th goal Friday, one behind Mike Hoffman for the team lead, and boasts five points over the last four games to close within two of Huberdeau. Barkov recorded 14 points in 15 games during November and scored six of his nine goals over the past 12 contests while defenseman Keith Yandle had an assist Friday for the 399th of his career. Roberto Luongo (4-3-0, .902 save percentage), who has been out four games with a lower-body injury, has been skating with the team and could make his return to the lineup as early as Saturday.
OVERTIME
1. Florida F Jared McCann has registered four of his five goals on the season in the last seven contests.
2. Tampa Bay C Cedric Paquette owns five goals in 25 games, already matching last season’s output in 56 contests.
3. The Panthers recorded a pair of power-play goals Friday and have scored at least one in 14 of the last 15 games.