Panthers Win First Game After Christmas Break, Defeat Lightning 3-2

Sam Reinhart scored twice, Aaron Ekblad got his first goal of the season and the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2  on Wednesday night. 

Sergei Bobrovsky had 27 saves in his 16th win of the season. Florida improved to 20-12-2 with the victory against their in-state rival.

“We knew that they weren’t going to go away,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a big win for us against a really good team.”

Ekblad opened the scoring for the Panthers 4:16 into the game. This was his first goal of the season, in game No. 17 for him.

Reinhart’s first goal of the game was his 20th of the season. He has scored at least 20 goals in each of his last seven seasons and has hit that mark eight times in his career. He leads Panthers in scoring with 21 goals, 42 points. 

“He’s doing all the right things on the ice. All the time,” Aleksander Barkov told Bally Sports Panthers’ Katie Engleson on Reinhart. “He’s on step, two steps ahead of everyone… he’s so much fun to play with.” 

Barkov led all skaters tonight with three assists in the game. The Panthers captain has 12 multi-point games on the season. He is second on the team in scoring with 35 points in 31 games.

The first line of Barkov, Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues combined for six points on the night. 

“It was a big night by Sam [Reinhart]. I think that Evan started to kind of raise his work level and Sasha is pretty consistent with that,” head coach Paul Maurice said. 

Maurice had a big night himself. He coached in his 1800 game on Wednesday — becoming just the third coach to do so in NHL history. Maurice needs just 13 games to move into sole possession for second most games coached (Barry Trotz currently holds second place, 1812 games). 

Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov continued his stellar season, scoring his 24th goal of the season just 28 seconds into the third to get the Lightning on the board. Kucherov leads the NHL in scoring with 58 points. 

Reinhart’s second goal of the game came with the Panthers shorthanded, giving them a 3-1 lead, 3:11 into the third.

Florida was technically perfect on their penalty kill on Wednesday, going 3/3 on the box score. 

However, Tampa’s Michael Eyssimont would score mere seconds after Florida killed off their third penalty of the game  — getting the deficit back down to one. 

The Panthers have had the league’s best penalty kill since Nov. 20 (92.6 percent). 

Florida takes the first of three meetings this season against Tampa. They have won their last three games against the Lightning, dating back to last season.

“We’ll take it right, first game after Christmas. You never know what you  get there,” Maurice said. “They worked hard, they fought hard. Pretty close to where we want to be.” 

Panthers Notes

Florida will return home for the next two matchups — Dec. 29 vs New York Rangers & Dec. 30 vs Montreal Canadiens

The Panthers have won their last two games (VGK,TBL)