The Tampa Bay Lightning built an early lead that they refused to relinquish and went on to beat the frustrated Florida Panthers by a 3-1 count in Game 2 at the BB&T Center.
Steven Stamkos passed the puck off defenseman Anton Stralman and into the net 4:52 into the opening period and Ondrej Palat followed up on Brayden Point’s shot that rang off the far post after Point blew by MacKenzie Weegar, who had a rather tough outing, 10:05 later.
The only Panthers goal came with 5:39 left in the second period, Mason Marchment won a puck battle behind the net and got it to Aleksander Barkov, who passed off to Carter Verhaeghe.