NHL Update: Florida Panthers crushed Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2
Mike Santorelli scored twice, including game-tying and game-winning goal, as Florida Panthers knocked off Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2, at St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday night.
David Booth also netted a goal for Florida, which halted a two-game skid. Scott Clemmensen turned aside 34 shots for the victors.
"One thing that this team does is give the fans their money's worth in effort. It's not always pretty, and we don't always win, but they don't cheat you in effort."Panthers Coach Peter DeBoer said.
Marc-Andre Bergeron and Sean Bergenheim both found the net for Tampa Bay, which fell to 5-3-2 on its 12-game home-stand. Dan Ellis stopped 24-of-26 shots in the loss.
"We're really lucky on this one," Lightning Coach Guy Boucher said. "Anytime there's knees going into the boards at full speed, there's a lot of worry there. So, we are quite happy at this point."
Tampa Bay got within scoring first to take 1-0 lead just 4:45 minutes into the opening stanza, as Bergeron ripped a slap shot from the top of the right circle past Clemmensen.
Booth pulled Panthers even at 1-1 on the power play just 24 seconds into the middle frame. The goal came when Dennis Wideman fired a shot from the right circle and Booth redirected it into the back of the net.
Bergenheim put Lightning back on top, 2-1, just 14 seconds into the final session. It happened so when Hall denied a clearing effort along the right boards and blasted a shot on net. Dominic Moore redirected the puck to Bergenheim, who buried
it past Clemmensen.
Santorelli knotted the game at 2-2 with his first goal of the game on a power-play with three minutes to play in the game. The play was set up by Cory Stillman, who snapped a shot from the point. Ellis stopped it but a rebound popped out in front.
Santorelli grabbed it and knocked it into the net.
Just 2:20 into extra session, Florida’s Radek Dvorak was called to box for tripping. Tampa Bay was unable to tally on the power play, despite Steven Stamkos hitting the post.
"The game was about us playing as a team," Clemmensen said. "We were able to get that big goal at the end of the third period and force overtime."
Santorelli started the shootout with a top-shelf wrist shot to seal the win at 3-2 and Clemmensen turned away shots from Adam Hall, Moore and Steve Downie to secure the win.
"It's a tough one to take. We outshot them, out-chance them. They scored on the same shots we made, but ours didn't go in." Boucher said.
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