Panthers at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning will attempt to win back-to-back games for the first time in more than a month when they host the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Captain Steven Stamkos notched his ninth goal of the season Thursday in a 3-1 victory over Calgary by Tampa Bay, which has won seven of the last eight meetings between the Sunshine State rivals.
“There’s been some stretches we’ve thrown some pretty good games together,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters after Thursday’s victory. “But we haven’t been able to sustain it. Hopefully, we can build off this.” The Panthers also are trying to pull themselves out of a slump after suffering their sixth loss in seven games (1-4-2) on Thursday, a 3-2 setback against Buffalo in which they outshot the Sabres 38-19. Vincent Trocheck has scored in three of his last four games, but Florida has allowed 15 goals in its last four contests. “We played pretty well, just didn’t put the puck in the net,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant told reporters after Thursday’s loss. “We gave up some bad goals at the wrong time.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Florida, Sun Sports (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (6-7-3): Jonathan Huberdeau notched his first goal of the season Thursday, and the Panthers hope that sparks more production from the former Calder Trophy winner. Jaromir Jagr leads the team with 13 points after registering three in the last two games while fellow veteran Jussi Jokinen has collected four points in his last four contests. Florida must improve on the penalty kill as it has allowed its opponent to convert its only power-play opportunity in each of the last three games and ranked 28th in the league (74.1 percent) entering Friday.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (8-8-2): Stamkos, who played on a line with Vladislav Namestnikov and Ryan Callahan on Thursday, scored for the third time in four games to take the team lead with 12 points. Tyler Johnson registered only his second multi-point performance of the season against Calgary and first since posting two assists versus Boston on Oct. 12, while linemate Nikita Kucherov has notched eight points in his last seven contests. Defenseman Andrej Sustr recorded a career-high four shots against the Flames and posted a plus-1 rating in 16:17 of ice time.
OVERTIME
1. Jagr is expected to play his 1,565th game, moving past Hall-of-Fame D Nicklas Lidstrom for 10th place on the all-time list.
2. Tampa Bay G Ben Bishop has allowed just nine goals in his last six starts, but he needed to make 30 saves Thursday in order to register his first victory in that span.
3. Florida C Aleksander Barkov, who has missed the last nine games with a hand injury, has begun practicing and could return to the lineup soon.