Lightning 4, Panthers 3 (SO)
SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning blew a two-goal, third-period lead but prevailed 4-3 in a shootout win over the Florida Panthers Sunday at the BB&T Center.
Steven Stamkos had the winning goal in the shootout.
Through overtime, Tampa's Anders Lindback made 29 saves and Florida's Jacob Markstrom 25.
In the shootout, Tampa shot first. In order, Valtteri Filppula scored, Jonathan Huberdeau was stopped, Victor Hedman was denied and Aleksander Bakov was turned away. Then Tampa's Sami Salo was stopped before Florida's Brad Boyes made a sweet move to tie it up 1-1.
The shootout went to extra shots, and Stamkos made his shot before Dmitry Kulikov was stopped.
It was the Lightning's third straight win. They have scored 13 goals during their mini-run.
The Lightning have also won five straight games in Sunrise and pounded the Panthers 7-2 in their only previous meeting this season, which was in Tampa. That was the Panthers' second-worst loss so far this season in terms of margin.
Overall, Florida has lost its past three games and six of seven.
Through regulation, Tampa's Anders Lindback made 26 saves and Florida's Jacob Markstrom 23.
Florida's power play went 0 for 4 and is 1-16 in its past seven games.
Tampa's Martin St. Louis started the scoring with his seventh goal of the season, which came on a tip-in after just 41 seconds had elapsed. Steven Stamkos got an assist, his ninth, as did Ryan Malone (his fourth).
Stamkos made it 2-0 with 4:35 elapsed, scoring his eighth goal of the season, on a slapshot. Stamkos has three goals and four assists in his past three games.
The assists on Stamkos' goal went to Malone and Matt Carle.
The Panthers made it 2-1 with 6:12 left in the first period on Shawn Matthias' backhander, his first goal of the season. The assists went to Jesse Winchester and Marcel Goc.
Tampa increased its lead to 3-1 with 10:02 left in the second period on a power-play, wrist-shot goal by Radko Gudas. It was his first goal of the season, and the assists went to Richard Panik and Alex Killorn.
But the Panthers battled back with third-period goals by Nick Bugstad, his first of the season, and Brad Boyes, his fifth. Bugstad's tip-in goal, which came with 14:21 left, was assisted by Scottie Upshall and Dmitry Kulikov. Boyes' backhanded goal, which came with 11:09 left, was unassisted.
NOTES: LW Tomas Fleischmann, normally in Florida's rotation, was out sick on Sunday. ... Tampa coach Jon Cooper is looking for more shots on goal. His team entered the weekend third in the league with 3.4 goals per game but 28th in shots (25.8). ... C Tom Pyatt (shoulder) was out for Tampa. ... The 45 shots the Panthers had in a loss to Buffalo on Friday were their most since Nov. 5, 2010. ... Florida is still without G Tim Thomas (groin), D Ed Jovanovski (hip) and C Steven Pinizzotto (hip). ... Tampa's scratches Sunday were D Keith Aulie and D Mark Barberio, who had both received playing time Saturday against Buffalo. ... Florida's scratches were D Ryan Whitney and RW Krys Barch. ... Next up for the Panthers is Friday's game against the St. Louis Blues. That will wrap up Florida's six-game homestand. The Panthers then travel to Washington to play the Capitals on Saturday. ... Next up for Tampa is a road game Tuesday at New Jersey.
