An old friend beat the Lightning in OT 2-1 to end another unsuccessful, make or break road trip for Tampa Bay.
Jonathan Marchessault scored the OT winner for the Florida Panthers, ending their four game losing streak.
Nikita Kucherov scored for Tampa Bay (22-22-6), which now has lost four of the past five games (1-2-2). Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, making his second consecutive start, made 35 saves. He stopped 34 of 36 shots in a 5-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday to end his six-game losing streak.
The Panthers opened the scoring when Jussi Jokinen scored his fifth of the year, a shorthanded goal, assisted by Vincent Trocheck (16) and Keith Yandle (21) at 9:55.
[protected-iframe id=”d5c45c3b417512fea7b95a3a296fed6f-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/jokinens-shorthanded-goal/t-283302124/c-48810003?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]On the same power play, Nikita Kucherov tied the game, scoring his 19th of the season at 11:33, assisted by Jonathan Drouin (17) and Alex Killorn (12).
[protected-iframe id=”12399825ff0b8319f344f194213f66aa-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/kucherovs-blistering-ppg/t-283302124/c-48810303?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Shots after the first period were 12-8 in favor of the Panthers. Andrei Vasilevskiy looked solid in the first period.
The scoreless second period saw the Ondrej Palat–Vladislav Namestnikov– Nikita Kucherov line generate many prime scoring chances.
Shots for the period were 12-10 in favor of the Bolts.
The third period went scoreless with shots ending up 34-32 in favor of the Panthers.
With Tyler Johnson in the box for interference, ex-Bolt Jonathan Marchessault scored to beat the Lightning 2-1. It was Marchessault’s 14th goal of the season, assisted by Yandle (22) and Jokinen (8) at 1:49 of overtime.
[protected-iframe id=”293fdf749620fb944b7b8f30dca8444a-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/marchessaults-overtime-winner/t-283302124/c-48825203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]The Lightning finished the six game road trip 2-2-2, earning six iof a possible twelve points. This was not good enough going into the All-Star break.
Tampa Bay defenseman Jason Garrison was back in the lineup after missing the past two games because of illness. Forward Michael Bournival missed the game because of an upper-body injury; he’s listed as day to day.
[protected-iframe id=”1cac2f18fc54471fa5159b74496fefe4-114320562-46289989″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-video”]Tampa Bay will host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at 7:30 PM after t he All-Star break. Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman will re present the Bolts in Los Angeles.
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