The new-look Florida Panthers hung with the Tampa Bay Lightning for most of the game, but Ondrej Palat’s third period power-play goal 45 seconds after Vincent Trocheck tied the game shorthanded sparked last season’s President’s Trophy winners to a 5-2 win at Amalie Arena in the season-opener for both teams.
Nikita Kucherov scored the only goal of the first period 6:39 after puck drop when he one-timed a feed from Mikhail Sergachev from the top of the right circle past Sergei Bobrovsky to wipe out a pending penalty on the Panthers.