Bolts win in Orlando behind another Johansson shutout

In front of 16,802 fans at Amway Center in Orlando, the Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a 2-0 victory over the Florida Panthers Tuesday night for their fourth-straight win this preseason. Fans in attendance got plenty of entertainment in a contest that ended with 160 penalty minutes being handed out between both teams.

Jonas Johansson got his second start of the preseason for the Bolts and stopped all 25 shots he faced, moving him to 2-0 with two shutouts and 67 saves on as many shots. 

The Lightning got on the board early when Tanner Jeannot scored a power-play goal just 5:24 into the opening period. After Zach Bogosian collected the puck at the point, he sent a pass to the right circle for Tyler Motte, who quickly one-touched a hard pass to the back door, where Jeannot was waiting to redirect the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky for his first goal of the preseason.

In typical Lightning vs. Panthers fashion, things got very chippy as the game rolled on with both teams racking up penalty minutes. Consequently, the first fight of the night came with 9:18 left in the second period with Austin Watson and Casey Fitzgerald dropping the gloves.

As the teams traded chances and tempers continued to flare, the second fight of the night occurred with 14:23 remaining in regulation when Jeannot squared off with Niko Mikkola and got some good shots in on the big Finnish defenseman.

Beginning to gain momentum, the Lightning earned a 5-on-3 power play with 10:14 remaining after Oliver Ekman-Larson and Kevin Stenlund were whistled for back-to-back penalties. With 9:14 remaining, Tampa Bay cashed in with Alex Barre-Boulet firing a hard shot pass towards Nick Paul, who redirected the puck past Bobrovsky to give the Bolts the 2-0 lead.

From there, the Lightning continued their strong defensive play and shut things down with Johansson earning his second shutout in as many games.

“He’s responded,” Mikey Eyssimont said when asked about Johansson. “He’s responded to this injury that we’re dealing with really well. We’re really excited playing in front of him.

“We’re blocking a lot of shots and the shots that are going - I don’t know much about playing goalie, but he had a shutout tonight, so that’s pretty much as good as you can be.”

Following the news that Andrei Vasilevskiy will miss roughly the first two months of the season, the Lightning rotated between Johansson and Matt Tomkins between the pipes. Both goalies have posted a 2-0 record this preseason.

“Both of them have played really well,” Cooper said. “Even when we gave up four the other night, Tommer was great in that game and Jo was great again tonight.

“In the end, it starts with our team defense and then he made some big saves tonight on the penalty kill. Just part of our process. We’re getting better as a team and the goalie’s definitely doing his part.”

With two games remaining this preseason, the Bolts still have a few cuts to make, but the decision won’t be an easy one for the coaching staff and front office.

“We’re going to probably have to send some guys down,” said Cooper. “Whatever the number’s going to be, it’s going to be extremely difficult, because everybody’s making a case for themselves to stay.

“In the end, it probably will come down to a little bit of chemistry on where guys fit in, but we’ve got a couple more games to kind of iron that out.

“But it’s a good problem to have when guys are pushing for spots and making it really difficult on the coaching staff.”

With four consecutive wins, the Lightning have played well throughout the preseason. Now, with two games to go, the group will look to get everything tightened up before Opening Night on October 10. The next preseason game is set for Thursday, October 5 at 7 p.m. ET in a rematch with the Panthers at AMALIE Arena.

“If I’m looking at the five games we’ve played so far, the guys have done a hell of a job and they’ve really played hard, so that’s a really good sign.”