Sergei Bobrovsky’s 46 saves is not enough to lift Florida Panthers against Lightning

In a battle between Russian goalies who are now Florida transplants, it was tough to tell who was better.

The win went to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 27 saves to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win over the host Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at the BB&T Center.

But Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky posted a season-high 46 saves and came close to a third straight win.

A would-be third-period goal by Panthers winger Brett Connolly was wiped out because of a high stick. But that’s the way it went for the Panthers, who didn’t get a call on Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos, who tripped Florida defenseman Mike Matheson just before he stole the puck and then scored the game’s opening goal.

Stamkos has a team-high 11 goals, including four in his past three games. Before this surge, he had gone six straight games with no goals and just two assists during that span.

Alex Killorn added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who are 8-5-2 on the road this season. Yet, in an odd recent trend, the Lightning are 1-4-0 in their past five home games.

Overall, this season the Lightning entered Tuesday ranked second in the NHL in goals per game (3.64).

The Panthers, who entered the game ranked fourth in the league in goals per game (3.52), went 0 for 3 on the power play and could not get on track until late.

Evgenii Dadonov scored the only goal for the Panthers. It came with 2 minutes left in the third period and Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker.

With the loss, the Panthers are now 3-2-0 on this nine-game homestand, the longest in franchise history.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring with 6:42 left in the first period. After Stamkos stole the puck from Matheson, he deked Bobrovsky and reached around him, hitting the back of the right side of the net.

The Lightning extended the lead to 2-0 with 4:51 gone in the second. Bobrovsky gave up a long rebound on an Anthony Cirelli shot, and linemate Killorn cleaned up for the goal.

Florida appeared to cut its deficit to 2-1 with 8:51 left in the third as Connolly’s deflection of a MacKenzie Weegar shot got past Vasilevskiy. But the goal was waved off when it was ruled that Connolly’s stick was high — just above the crossbar — when he made the deflection.

THIS AND THAT

The Panthers entered the game with several of their players ranked high in league stats:

▪ Center Vincent Trocheck was tied for second with three shootout goals. He has missed twice.

▪ Connolly, who leads the team with 14 goals, was second in shooting percentage (26.4).

▪ Center Aleksander Barkov ranked second with 20-even-strength points.

▪ Defenseman Keith Yandle and winger Jonathan Huberdeau were tied for third with 13 power-play assists.

This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 11:37 AM.