Brandon Montour walked away from his first exposure to the Tampa Bay Lightning this year with the feeling his Florida Panthers “were the better team” Thursday, despite an overtime loss in Tampa. The Panthers, rejuvenated by Montour and a handful of other new additions, felt they outplayed the Lightning for nearly the entire game and only lost because of a spectacular performance by Andrei Vasilevskiy. They didn’t seem like a team ready to panic, even after they dropped into third place in the Central Division on a day they felt they should’ve won.
Two days later, Florida picked up where it left, only this time the Panthers finished off a 5-3 win Saturday to vault past Tampa Bay in the ultra-competitive Central.
Montour scored his first goal with his new team early in the first period and Florida never trailed to secure a critical road win at Amalie Arena.
The Panthers, who have played one more game than the Lightning and two more than the first-place Carolina Hurricanes, now have a one-point edge on Tampa Bay for second and trail the Hurricanes by a single point. They’re now 3-2-1 against the Lightning this season.
Montour, playing in his second game with Florida, scored his first point as a Panther, as did winger Nikita Gusev, who also debuted Thursday. The most important newcomer, however, was Sam Bennett.
Acquiring Bennett was the final move the Panthers made before the trade deadline Monday, sending a second-round pick and a prospect to the Calgary Flames to land the versatile forward. Bennett had his moments with the Flames — he scored 11 goals in 19 playoff games — but he never lived up to the expectations that came with being the No. 4 overall pick in the 2014 NHL entry draft. Florida wanted to give him a second chance, so coach Joel Quenneville immediately placed him at center on the Panthers’ second line for his Florida debut Saturday in the Tampa Bay area.
He rewarded them with a tone-setting first period to help give the Panthers a 3-1 lead.
Bennett finished the first with two assists, three hits and a plus-minus of plus-2 in 5:20, including 1:49 on the penalty kill. While he was on ice for 5-on-5 action, Florida attempted six shots and allowed only one.
Both goals scored with Bennett on the ice started with his play. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead with 11:19 left in the first period on a slap shot by Montour and Bennett created the chance. The Lightning broke up a rush in front of its own net and Bennett swooped in to gather the loose puck. He skated to the right corner, let the Panthers set up in the zone and found Montour at the point. The defenseman fired a slap shot into traffic and it deflected off Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak to give Florida at 1-0 lead for the second straight game.
Star center Aleksander Barkov doubled the lead with a power-play goal, but the Lightning answered just 1:08 later. In the final seconds of the half, the Panthers built a much-needed cushion and Bennett again created the chance.
Tyler Johnson was just trying to run out the final seconds of the period, skating lazily at his own blue line and waiting for perhaps one last rush to develop. Bennett saw an opportunity.
The 24-year-old Canadian threw an open-ice check at the Tampa Bay forward and jarred the puck loose. All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau tracked it down in the right corner, zipped a cross ice pass to Markus Nutivaara at the point, then buried a rebound off the defenseman’s slap shot with 7.8 seconds left in the period. Bennett added a secondary assist to go along with his earlier primary and Florida took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
Winger Frank Vatrano added an insurance goal on a breakaway with 17:34 left in the second and the Panthers ended up needing it. The Lightning scored with 45 seconds left in the second period, then cut Florida’s lead to 4-3 on a goal with 18:07 remaining. The Panthers spent most of the third period clinging to a narrow lead and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky finished off the win with 28 saves on 31 shots, and winger Anthony Duclair’s empty-net goal clinched the win.
