By Mike Bonts, Florida Sports Wire
TAMPA (Florida Sports Wire) – The Tampa Bay Lightning (18-11-2) was defeated 4-2 by the Florida Panthers (22-11-2) on Sunday night at AMALIE Arena in Tampa.
Sam Reinhart opened scoring for the Panthers 15:51 into the first period on a power-play goal. Nick Paul put the Bolts on the board with his eighth goal of the season with just over four seconds remaining in the first period.
AJ Greer scored a shorthanded goal to give the lead back to Florida. But before the power play was over, the Panthers found themselves on the board again on a goal by Eetu Luostarinen.
Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point scored his 22nd goal of the season. Reinhart scored an empty goal for his second of the game to wrap up scoring.
Florida’s Knight saved 19 of 25 on the night. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves on 25 shots in defeat as he moved to 15-10-1 with a .911 save percentage and 2.41 goals-against average.
The Lightning had their four-game winning streak snapped and moved to 18-11-2 overall, 10-5-1 on home ice, 6-5-2 against Eastern Conference opponents and 0-4-0 against Atlantic Division opponents.
The Bolts were outshot 26-21 by the Panthers, including a 9-3 deficit in the second period…Tampa Bay moved to 6-4 2 when outshot by its opponent this season.
The Lightning have lost four consecutive regular season games on home ice against the Panthers.
The Bolts conceded two shorthanded goals against and are up to five for the season, tied with Florida and Calgary for the most in the NHL.
Both clubs meet again Monday night in Sunrise.
