After trimming the roster down the 42 players, the Florida Panthers took the ice on Monday night for game number six of the preseason as they welcomed the Tampa Bay Lightning to Amerant Bank Arena.
With positions up for grabs, the Panthers went with a mostly NHL lineup, with the bottom six being the group to watch, fighting for some of the final spots on the roster.
In a tight hockey contest, the Panthers comeback attempt fell short as they lost to Tampa Bay by a final of 3-1.
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The Lightning were first to score thanks to Emil Lilleberg.
After getting the puck deep, it was worked back to the right point where the shot got through a screen, over the shoulder of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky at 13:19 of the first period.
There was more tempo and physicality in the second frame, but neither team was able to find the back of the net prior to Spencer Knight coming into the game at 9:13 of the period.
Bobrovsky finished the night with 10 saves on 11 Tampa shots.
It didn’t take long for the Lightning to strike again after the goalie change.
On their first odd man rush, the Lightning went 2-on-1 where Knight stopped the first shot, but Gage Goncalves followed up on the rebound to make it 2-0 with 11:38 left in the second period.
Evan Rodrigues would not be seen on the ice from just over the halfway point of the second period and ended up missing the rest of the game.
Florida went with 11 forwards as AJ Greer stepped up to the second line for the rest of the contest.
It took just over 55 minutes for the Panthers to get their first power play, and wasted no time scoring on the man advantage.
The Cats won the offensive zone draw and after a bit of a cycle, Carter Verhaeghe’s wrister from the point found Sam Reinhart, who was parked right in front.
Reinhart did what he does best, being at the netfront and redirecting the puck past Jonas Johansson to cut the deficit to one at 15:26 of the third period.
Preseason is the time to be a little more daring right?
With just over three minutes left, Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice decided to bring on the extra attacker, but Maxim Groshev cashed in on the empty net to make it 3-1 Tampa and ice the game for the visitors.
Knight finished with 13 saves on 14 shots.
The Panthers are now 3-3-0 during the preseason, and will meet the Lightning a couple of days from now as the Bolts will host the next preseason battle of Florida on Wednesday night from Amalie Arena.
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