Tampa Bay Lightning remain home sick, lose to Florida Panthers 3-2 in shootout -NHL Match Update
Tampa Bay is one of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) most coveted franchise and with their latest performance against Florida Panthers on Saturday, October 12, losing 3-2 in a shootout at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, United States, it seems
like the Lightning might have become home sick.
Still yet to play a game at home, Tampa Bay is giving off signals that they have had enough of road trip games and want to play on their own ice and luckily for them, their matchup against Florida was their last contest away before their three-game home
stay.
Regarding it as a big victory for a team that struggled last season, Florida’s veteran goalie, Jose Theodore, hopes that they can keep the momentum going.
"They have a lot of skill", Theodore said of the Lightning. "You look at the players that came down and shot, they're really skilled players. The guys played really well".
Despite their fourth straight loss, Tampa Bay’s Marc-Andre Bergeron is confident they will bounce back one they get a little rest back home.
"We're a team that came back a lot last year and we never quit", Bergeron said. "We're a hardworking team and right now I think we're a little off but it's starting to come back and we're seeing it and we're starting to understand a little more that it's
not going to be easy".
Ed Jovanovski kicked off the scoring by taking advantage of their second power play opportunity a little over midway through the match. Florida could have scored more seeing that Tampa Bay gave six penalties throughout the contest.
The second period consisted mostly of fighting with both teams exchanging fists more than taking shots on the net. Marc-Andre Bergeron scored his first to level it with Florida, followed by a tie-breaker from Kris Versteeg on another added man advantage,
which was a potential game-winner, but Bergeron remained hot headed and scored another 39 seconds later to force overtime.
Marcel Goc was the only player to score in the shootout, and luckily for Florida, he was one of the Panthers while Jose Theodore blocked all three attempts taken by Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay and Florida Panthers will face-off again on Monday, but this time on Lightning ice.
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