"It's definitely a big win for us," said Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped 30 of 33 shots in the win. "We've been down a couple of games, but all of us had a break and got refreshed and started over. It's a big two points for us, two points against a really good team."
Trailing 2-1 entering the third period against New York, MacKenzie Weegar scored his first goal of the season to make it a 2-2 game less than six minutes into the final frame. Soon after, Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony Duclair each scored within a span of 4:09 to send the Cats ahead 4-2.
With a lineup overflowing with weapons, Florida has scored a league-high 73 goals at home.
"We never want to get too high or too low," said Duclair, who is tied for first on the team with 10 goals. "We just want to keep skating and playing our game. We know things will open up. We've got way too much talent, way too much speed and skill, to get shut down for a whole game."
Florida's points leader each of the last two seasons, Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team in scoring with 33 points (10 goals, 23 assists), while Aaron Ekblad ranks second with 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists). Tied for third, Sam Reinhart and Verhaeghe have 23 points apiece.
Sitting at 21-6-4 and holding a four-point lead over the Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division with one more game played, the Lightning have won four straight games and nine of their last 10 overall, including securing a 5-4 overtime win against the Canadines on Tuesday.
Down 4-3 late in the third period against Montreal, Corey Perry scored with 20 seconds left on the clock to make it 4-4 and force overtime. Just 36 seconds into the extra frame, Ondrej Palat then lit the lamp to complete the comeback and put a big two points in the bank for Tampa Bay.
"Scoring a late goal to tie is always exciting," said Lighting forward Brayden Point, who had two goals and assisted on Perry's game-tying goal in the win. "Luckily enough we get the two points in overtime. There was a lot of emotion."
Steven Stamkos leads the Lightning in both goals (14) and points (36), while Victor Hedman sits second in points (33) and first in assists (26). As of Wednesday, the team had several players still in COVID protocols, including Andrei Vasilevskiy, Anthony Cirelli and Mikhail Sergachev.
Splitting the first two games of their season series (both played at Amalie Arena), the Panthers defeated the Lightning 4-1 in their first meeting back on Oct. 19. In the follow-up battle between the talented Floridian foes, Point scored in overtime to lift the Lightning to a 3-2 win on Nov. 13.
No strangers to one another, tonight's matchup will mark the 11th time that the Panthers and Lightning have played each other in the regular season this calendar year. Over their prior 10 regular-season matchups, Florida has clawed its way to a 6-2-2 record against Tampa Bay.
"We just have such a resilient group," Weegar said of the team's success. "It's the belief."
