"It was a big game," Stralman said. "Not just for me personally, but for our team and where we are in the standings and where they are in the standings in our division. That was a tough one."
Steven Stamkos broke the ice tonight, sliding the puck past an outstretched Sergei Bobrovsky and into the net to give the Lighting a 1-0 lead at 6:42 of the first period. In the second period, Alex Killorn doubled Tampa Bay's advantage to 2-0 when he cashed in on a rebound at 4:51.
Making his third consecutive start, Bobrovsky stopped a season-high 46 shots.
"Unfortunate to lose that hockey game," Bobrovsky said. "It was big for us, but we still did some good things. I thought we defended well. The guys, again, allowed me to see the puck and cleared the rebounds. I'll try to take the positive out of this game. It's unfortunate to lose to a division opponent, but we still have lots of hockey [ahead]. We'll take the positive and move on."
With 8:53 left in the third period, the Panthers appeared to finally get on the board and cut their deficit down to 2-1 when Brett Connolly tipped in a goal past Andrei Vasilevskiy. However, after a video review, officials deemed Connolly's stick was over the crossbar and disallowed the goal.
Finishing with 27 saves, Vasilevskiy's shutout bid was spoiled by Evgenii Dadonov, who tapped in a rebound from the doorstep to trim Florida's deficit to 2-1 with two minutes left in regulation.
"It was one of those nights where you're just trying to get something going," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "We didn't have much, whether it was pace or possession. [Tampa Bay] played a good game. They played it like it was the biggest game of the year for them. It was one of those games.
"It was a good measuring stick for us to meet that type of challenge where it's our most important game. It's a learning curve. It's something that we've got to be better and expect a much harder performance from our team. As you go along we're going to have some big games, and we're going to have to match that emotion."
The Panthers, who occupy third place in the Atlantic Division at 15-10-5, will look to get back in the win column when they continue their homestand Tuesday against the New York Islanders.
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's loss in Sunrise…