The Florida Panthers (21-11-2) are on the Gulf Coast to face their division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning (18-10-2) this evening at Amalie Arena.
Aleksander Barkov set up Uvis Balinskis’ first goal of the season and scored a power-play marker with 17 seconds left in overtime to lift the Panthers to a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Friday. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves and Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk each extended their point streaks to three games as Florida won for the third straight time.
The Lightning have won four straight and are also coming in off a win over the Blues, beating St Louis on home ice on Thursday night by a 3-1 count. The Lightning’s potent offense boasts four players with 30+ points: Nikita Kucherov (49), Brayden Point (38), Brandon Hagel (37) and Jaek Guentzel (33).
- WHEN: 5 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Amalie Arena – Tampa, FL
- ON THE TUBE: Scripps, FDSNSUN
- ON THE DIAL: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #GoBolts, #FLAvsTBL, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Raw Charge
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 4
- LAST MEETING: TBL 5, @FLA 3 (Recap) – 3/16/2024
- NEXT MEETING: December 23, 2024
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Knight (5-5-1 .890 / 2.85 1SO) Tampa Bay: Vasilevskiy (15-9-1 .913 / 2.38 2SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / Tampa Bay
Sunday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- OTTAWA (18-13-2 38P) at Edmonton (20-11-2 42 P) 8 p.m. (ESPN+, Hulu)
Idle: TOR (44P), BOS (40P), MON (31P), DET (30P), BUF (26P)