The Florida Panthers ended its six-game road trip on a high note with a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, handing Vezina-favorite Andrei Vasilevskiy his first loss at Amalie Arena this season.
Five different Cats lit the lamp, including defenseman Brandon Montour, whose shot from the left point bounced in off a Lightning player defending in front to open the scoring.
Sam Bennett, making his first appearance with Florida, got his first assist with his new team on Montour’s first goal as a Cat. Bennett would collect a second assist later in the opening frame when Jonathan Huberdeau punched in Markus Nutivaara’s rebound to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead,
A determined Aleksander Barkov created the Cats second goal, on a power play, when he took a nice pass from yet another newcomer, Nikita Gusev, and put his own rebound behind Vasilevskiy off the leg of Patric Hornqvist, who was created with his 14th goal.