TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are fast. They skate quickly, they create odd-man rushes with one misstep, and they can get back into games in a snap.
The Lightning know this. Their meeting with the Panthers on Saturday night at Amalie Arena was their 19th — including the preseason — over the past calendar year. There’s no team they know better, and no team that raises their temperature more.
After Tampa Bay saw its two-goal lead over Florida dissipate over a 37-second span in the second period, the Lightning beat Florida, 3-2, in overtime on Brayden Point’s goal 2:30 into the overtime.
The Panthers dominated zone time in the third period, and Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made several saves to force overtime.
Victor Hedman couldn’t finish on a breakaway in the first minute of overtime, and Vasilevskiy closed off the net to Aaron Ekblad with a pad save on the other end.
Seemingly boosted by unlikely fight candidate Point midway through the second, the Lightning took a 2-0 lead on Victor Hedman’s goal with 10:58 left in the period.
But the Panthers tied the score quickly. First Jonathan Huberdeau scored after emerging with the puck after Lightning players Ondrej Palat and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare collided in a crowd by the near wall.
Huberdeau made a remarkable move, faking a forehand shot, shielding himself across the slot and snapping a shot past Vasilevskiy with 7:01 left in the second.
The tying goal came when Ekblad’s shot from the point was deflected in by Eetu Luostarinen with 6:29 left in the period.
The Lightning went up 1-0 in the opening period with a much-needed goal from their beleaguered power play unit.
After entering the night just 3 for 29 over their last 12 games on the man advantage, most of that time navigating it without play-making forward Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning have done a lot of tweaking to their power-play unit.
Among the changes was inserting Pat Maroon back onto the second-team power play unit in the bumper position in front of the net.
Maroon made good on his return, as the Lightning scored on their first power play opportunity of the night.
The Lightning were coming off a game in which they registered just one shot on goal in 7:58 of power play time, going 0 for 4 in an overtime loss to Carolina. And when the Lightning faced the Panthers last month, they were 0 for 6 on the power play.
The key to Maroon’s goal was a superb setup. Alex Killorn, moved to the the second power-play unit, found Ross Colton in the near corner by the goal line. Colton sent a sharp one-timer that went across the paint untouched and right to Maroon parked on the other side for an easy backdoor finish inside the far post.
As expected, Saturday’s game had its share of chippiness, and even Point, not typically one to drop his gloves, fought Florida agitator Patric Hornqvist after they were tied up against the boards.
