Panthers Comeback Falls Short, Lose to Lightning 5-3

SUNRISE — Florida conceded the first four goals on Saturday night before pushing a comeback, making it a one goal game late in the third.

The rally fell short after Nikita Kucherov put away his 40th goal of the season on an empty net — giving the Lightning the two-points in a 5-3 win over the Panthers. 

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had 47 saves in the game — 35 of those coming in the final  40 minutes — in his 24th win of the season. 

“Obviously [there was] very good goaltending on the other side,” Sam Reinhart said. “We had some good looks, gotta give him credit.”

Here’s Saturday’s takeaways.

Panthers face another early, multi-goal hole

Florida’s past three games have been uncharacteristic of them when compared to the entirety of the season. 

The Panthers trailed 3-0 in three consecutive games: Dallas, Carolina and now Tampa going up  early on them. 

They were able to overcome the large deficit Tuesday night in Dallas, defeating the Stars 4-3 — scoring three times in the third. 

That wasn’t the case against the Hurricanes however, the Panthers were shutout 4-0. 

Prior to last Thursday’s loss in Carolina, the Panthers went 21 straight games not conceding more than three goals.

As they did a few days ago against the Stars, Panthers were able to score three unanswered goals — cutting Tampa’s lead to 4-3 — but to get the tying goal.

The Lightning iced the game with 1:32 remaining in regulation on a Kucherov empty netter.

Kulikov gets ejected

Trailing 3-0 in the second, the Panthers finally got a puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy, making it a two-goal game.

Or so they thought.

Leading up to the goal, Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov interfered with Lightning forward Conor Sheary, hitting him close to the head.

The officials reviewed the call and ended up taking the Panthers goal off the board and issuing Kulikov a five-minute major for a hit to the head. 

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has been around the league since the mid 90’s. A goal being taken off the board after an uncalled penalty was reviewed was a first for him.

“No. Never seen one of those,” Maurice said. “But that’s the beauty of the National Hockey League, they’ll always surprise you with something.”

Kulikov has been suspended one time his career. In 2015, during his first stint with the Panthers, Kulikov was suspended four-games for clipping Tyler Seguin.

Mayhem break lose in period two 

Tampa scored 20 seconds into the game on Saturday, then added a second goal in the first. It looked like it wasn’t going to get any better for Florida when the second rolled around.

The Lightning grabbed two more goals in the following period, going up 4-0 on the Panthers. The Lightning scored on two of their three shots in the frame. 

Dmitry Kulikov’s ejection also came in the second and the Panthers goal came off the board. Then the Lightning scored on a 5-on-3 advantage to make it 4-0. 

The Panthers were able to somewhat rally after a few quick goals from Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart — cutting the four-goal deficit to just two.

“We definitely played way better once it was 4-0, but we just can’t. It’s 4-0, it’s on us,” Tkachuk said. “We gave up way too many good chances early, that’s not our game, that’s not what’s going to make us successful.”

By the time the second intermission rolled around, the game which looked like a Lightning blowout became an actual hockey game. 

Florida outshot 18-3 in the second and surpassed that with a 20-2 advantage in the third. 

Panthers Notes 

Sam Reinhart scored twice, pushing his season goal total to 48

Sam Bennett and Evan Rodrigues returned to the lineup after missing last game against the Hurricanes