Justin Sourdif scored both the go-ahead goal and set up Ryan Lomberg’s insurance marker in the third period as the Florida Panthers pulled away from the Tampa Bay Lightning to post a 6-3 preseason win at Amalie Arena.
After the Cats erased three Lightning leads over the first two periods, Sourdif knocked in the rebound, with Zac Dalpe also jabbing away, after goaltender Matt Tomkins couldn’t handle Anton Lundell’s shot from the top of the right circle. The eventual game-winner came at 10:07 of the third. It was Sourdif’s first of the preseason.
Florida went up by two 91 seconds later when Josh Mahura sent the puck around the boards to Sourdif, who was stationed behind the net. Sourdif found Lomberg in the lower left circle and he fired the puck by Tomkins.
Kevin Stenlund completed the scoring with an unassisted empty-netter at 19:18, his second goal of the game.
Victor Hedman gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 2:54 of the opening frame, beating Anthony Stolarz with a powerful slap shot with the assists going to Austin Watson and Gabriel Fortier.
Stenlund, who filled in for Aleksander Barkov as the first line center, finished off a pretty give-and-go with Evan Rodrigues by sweeping the puck under Tomkins’ stick 2:10 later to even the score. Carter Verhaeghe was credited with the secondary assist.
Tampa Bay regained the lead 1:16 into the second when Nikita Kucherov wristed a shot past Stolarz from distance with the lone assist going to Brayden Point.
The Panthers countered again with the honors going to Eetu Luostarinen, who converted off a redirection of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot at 10:59. Lundell drew the second helper on the power-play goal.
A elbowing call on Ekman-Larsson led to Steven Stamkos’ power-play goal at the 13:01 mark. The assists went to Nick Paul and Kucherov as Tampa Bay only needed 12 seconds to make the Florida kill pay for the penalty.
The Panthers quickly responded to tie it for the third time on Nick Cousins goal at 14:17. After Ekman-Larsson backhanded the puck to Lomberg following a turnover, he fed Cousins, who ripped a shot past a helpless Tompkins.
After getting blanked by Jonas Johansson and only generating 25 shots in Tuesday night’s penalty-filled first leg in Orlando, the Cats were much better last night in Tampa, turning it on in the third to cruise to a three-goal victory. Florida finished with a gaudy total of 52 shots on goal while holding the Lightning to a mere 19. Six Panthers (Sourdif, Stenlund, Cousins, Lomberg, Lundell and Ekman-Larsson) delivered multi-point games and Stolarz was solid in net, finishing with 16 saves. The two teams will end the preseason against each other Saturday night in Sunrise.