The Tampa Bay Lightning caught the Florida Panthers by surprise and hit them hard with pressure early, preventing the Cats from exiting their zone. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was expected to come up big early, and he did by stopping Tampa’s early chances.
Unfortunately, there was only so much he could do as the Lightning got on the board first through Brayden Point, who redirected Erik Cernak’s point shot past Bobrovsky to give his side an early lead.
Brett Connolly was given a chance to level the game shortly after but was denied by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who turned aside the chance with ease.