Panthers Wrap-Up: Lightning 6, Panthers 3
Turnovers costly as Lightning erupt for four second period goals and Cats drop second game on back-to-back nights.
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 St. Louis got two goals during Tampa Bay's four-goal second, helping the Lightning take a 5-3 lead entering the third. The right wing, who has six goals and 16 points during a nine-game point streak, completed the hat trick on an empty-netter during the final minute of play. FULL RECAP |
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 - Panthers coach Kevin Dineen |
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 2. Tampa's Stars Take Over Second: Deadlocked at one after one, the Lightning's top three offensive players (Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St Louis and Steven Stamkos) took over the game in the second twenty minutes. The trio scored all four Tampa Bay goals in giving the home team a 5-3 lead after forty minutes. Just like the first period, Tampa Bay got on the board early and off another Cats turnover. Lecavalier gave Tampa a 2-1 lead 1:42 into the period as he stole the puck, walked in, faked a shot and then fired a shot top shelf for his 20th of the season. St. Louis upped the Tampa lead to two goals as he followed up on his own shot 2:40 later. After Mikael Samuelsson scored off a rebound to bring the Cats to within one, Tampa would chase Clemmensen (for the rest of the period) as Stamkos netted his league high 34th of the season in following up his own rebound with 7:24 left on the clock and then St. Louis banked the puck in off of Clemmensen's skate from in close with 4:52 left on the clock. Brian Foster would replace Clemmensen in seeing his first NHL action. 3. Turnovers Costly As Cats Continue To Search For Back-To-Back Success: Whenever the Panthers had a turnover Saturday night, the puck seemed to find the back of the net. Clemmensen was left on the hook on several occasions and while coming up with some big saves, couldn't keep the Lightning offense off the board. Sean Bergenheim's second goal in two games with 45 seconds left in the second gave the visitors hope and despite two power play chances, Florida couldn't get any closer as St. Louis cemented the game with an empty netter. Turnovers led directly to about four of the Lightning's goals. While the energy seemed to be there, playing the second game on back-to-back days has cost the Cats points on the season. With the loss, Florida fell to 2-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The second game, in fact, hasn't been pretty on the scoreboard. Adding the six goals to the total, Florida's opponents have scored 34 goals in the eight games to date this season. Florida on the other hand has recorded just 14 goals. Some of the Panthers biggest losses (scoreboard wise) have come in back-to-back games. That includes a 5-1 loss earlier in the season in Tampa, 8-0 loss in Boston and 5-2 loss in New Jersey. |
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 Memorable twitter posts from the game.
@awes0m3ness: Shake it off #FlaPanthers |
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 Memorable fan posts from the game.
John R McNulty: Tough game. Well need a better effort against the Crapitals. Amy Riley: Still proud guys. Next time. Still number 1 Joe Fiore: Well, I'm not going to smite the Panthers for the game tonight. They did pretty well, especially considering they've played two in a row. Clemmensen had a lot coming at him tonight, and you can't expect him to be perfect. Good energy throughout the game, they just weren't able to push enough. They need to bring a bigger bag of tricks for the Capitals though, especially considering the standings right now. Pretty huge game on Tuesday, so let's hope the two days off will give them a burst. Colby Moran: Good grief being originally from Tampa and the girlfriend still holding the hometown roots, I'm never going to hear the end of this. Jeff Main: Plenty of time to get rested up. Ovi will be back in Washingtons line up to which poses a threat itself. |
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 1. Trailing by three (5-2) after Martin St Louis scored his second of the game with 4:52 left in the second, Cats head coach Kevin Dineen went to the bench and replaced Scott Clemmensen with backup Brian Foster. Called up due to the injuries to Jose Theododre and Jacob Markstrom, Foster would play the final 4:52 of the period, the first action of his NHL career. Ironically enough, the netminder saw just one shot over that time. |
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3 Goals, 4 Shots, +3, 19:12 TOI
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Panthers
Ligtning
Author: Glenn Odebralski | FloridaPanthers.com
