J.T. Miller and Mathieu Joseph scored in the third period as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers in the preseason finale for both teams.
Jonathan Huberdeau opened the scoring eleven minutes into the first period with the lone assist going to Mike Hoffman, It was Huberdeau’s first goal of the preseason and Hoffman’s first point.
Cory Conacher tied the game 61 seconds later on a assist from Danick Martel, a player the Bolts claimed off waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers less than a week ago.
Hoffman notched his first of the preseason, a power-play goal from Aleksander Barkov, to give the Cats the lead back 8:49 into the second period.
Joseph, who scored twice in Thursday’s game, tied the game at two unassisted at 6:31 of the third period with his fourth preseason goal. Miller then gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead at 13:11. Miller’s goal was set up by Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos
Roberto Luongo went the distance for the Cats and finished with 23 saves on 26 shots. Luongo had a much better game then he did on Thursday, but the Lightning was able to solve twice in third on only seven shots.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31 of 33 shots for Tampa Bay, who finished the preseason with a 4-3 record.
The two clubs will open the regular season against each other on Saturday in Tampa.
Some Numbers
Jonathan Huderdeau led all skaters with five shots on goal. Vincent Trocheck finished with four.
Keith Yandle and Bogdan Kiselevich were injured in the first period and did not return, leaving Mike Matheson, Mark Pysyk, Alex Petrovic and Jacob MacDonald to pick up the slack.
Matheson logged a game-high 29:06 TOI, registered three shots on goal and was named the game’s third star.
The Panthers lost two, won three, and then lost two to finish the preseason 3-4.