The Florida Panthers opened the 2017-18 campaign with a disappointing 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Florida’s two NHL clubs will meet again tonight at the BB&T Center in Sunrise.

After the Panthers had the better of the early chances, Ondrej Palat got loose on a bit of a broken play and slipped the puck between Roberto Luongo’s pads to put the Lightning on the board 6:33 into first period. The assists on the goal went to Brayden Point and Victor Hedman.

The Lightning went up by two when Brayden Point collected a blocked centering attempt and quickly beat Luongo from a sharp angle 25 seconds into the middle frame. Palat didn’t get an assist on the goal, but he did set up the play by lugging the puck up ice and bulling through Aaron Ekblad in the left corner.

Training camp standout Connor Brickley bagged the first Panthers goal of season at the 12:21 mark. Brickley went to the front of the net to receive Alex Petrovic’s sweet centering pass after the defenseman stepped up to claim the puck after Vincent Trocheck forced a turnover.

Mark Pysyk tied the game 5:26 later when he knocked in a backhand shot from close quarters after Radim Vrbata’s stuff attempt was denied by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vincent Trocheck picked up the secondary assist on the play.

Vladislav Namestnikov easily scored to cap off a pretty passing play involving Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn to give Tampa Bay the lead back. The power-play goal came 59 seconds into the third period, with new addition Jamie McGinn off for slashing.

NIkita Kucherov lit the lamp at 6:38 to give Tampa Bay its second two-goal lead of the game. After his initial shot was blocked, the puck eventually found its way back to Kicherov and he fired it though a scrum in the slot to notch the eventual game-winner.

The Panthers would not go quietly into the night. Florida’s new top line clicked with 5:30 left in regulation to cut the deficit back down to one. After an Aleksander Barkov faceoff win, Keith Yandle found Evengii Dadonov, who let go of a wrister that Jonathan Huerdeau deflected down and past a helpless Vasilevskiy.

Vasilevskiy, who finished with 33 saves, came up with big stops late on Vrbata, Dadonov and Barkov before Palat delivered the dagger by beating Ekblad, who was trying to protect an empty-net, with 14 ticks left on the clock. Point picked up his third point of the night, and first star honors, with the lone assist on Palat’s second.

Despite the loss, there were definitely positives to take from this game. The Panthers looked fast and created lots of chances. Unfortunately, Luongo was outplayed by Vasilevskiy and the power play (0 for 4) sputtered, while the Bolts special teams produced the big goal from Namestnikov early in the third to go back ahead.

Full Highlights (courtesy of NHL.com)

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