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Lightning end busy week with gritty win to put little brother in their place.
FLA-3
TB-5
Curtis McElhinney, after a couple of pretty putrid starts, sparkled today allowing three goals on 32 shots for the victory. He did what you need your backup to do: just give the team in front of you a chance to pull out a win with some timely saves.
First Period
3:28 FLA Verhaeghe (12), (Barkov)
4:00 TB Gourde (11), (Goodrow, Coleman)
Second Period
11:23 TB Killorn (9), (Cernak, Point)
18:24 FLA Forsling (2), (Wennberg, Vatrano)(PP)
Third Period
5:22 TB Joseph (8), (Colton, Maroon)
6:25 FLA Hornqvist (12), (Yandle, Barkov)(PP)
10:56 TB Johnson (7), (Gourde, Cirelli)(PP)
19:45 TB Point (13), (Palat, Coleman)(EN)
McElhinney, Alex Killorn, and Yanni Gourde were the game’s three stars.
This was the Lightning’s fifth game in seven and they were playing a backup who got roughed up his last two starts and they lost Ryan McDonagh roughly halfway through the contest. Adversity handed a pretty awful hand of cards to Tampa Bay to play against a hungry Panthers team that had won two of three from the Lightning already and was looking to pull into a divisional tie. What a huge win for the team to gut out. Total team effort. Hell, even the CPA’s of Garlock & Kirwan had a keep assist with a video challenge that wiped off a goal.
Cal Foote was -1 with 1 hit in 11:20. Even down to five defensemen, the Lightning coaching staff simply weren’t exposing him against the Panthers’ speed.
Ross Colton was +1 with a helper, 2 penalty minutes, 2 shots, and 2 hit in 9:26. He was also 80% on 10 draws. The blemish was a pretty dumb roughing penalty in the Third Period when the Lightning were protecting a one goal lead, but putting that aside the Lightning’s new fourth line continues to be a weapon that’s a big time differentiator against most any team the Lightning come up against.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
