Lightning Finish Preseason 5-1-0 Allowing Just 8 Goals Against

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers by a final score of 4-1 on Saturday night in the teams final tune up before Thursday nights season opener.

The Bolts fell behind 3:21 into the game on a power play goal by Aleksander Barkov but the Panthers lead didn’t last long.

Nikita Kucherov scored on a wrist shot to tie the game (5:46), Steve Stamkos put the Bolts ahead on a wrist shot from outside the right circle (10:21), and J.T. Brown capped the first period scoring at 18:59.

Anton Stralman finished the scoring in the second period as Ben Bishop went on to record 36 saves for the Lightning who finish the preseason allowing just eight goals against and with a record of 5-1-0.

As for allowing just eight goals in the six preseason games Coach Cooper said he’d be happier if it were the first six games of the regular season but he was happy with the teams play. “We can’t start the year like we finished last year and I think the Montreal series was clear cut for us that we had holes in our defensive game.” He added that “I’m glad that this did happen and that we didn’t give up 28 goals.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF LIGHTNING’S 4-1 VICTORY OVER PANTHERS