Sam Reinhart scores twice to lead Panthers over Lightning 5-2

Audio By Carbonatix

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sam Reinhart scored a shorthanded goal and a power play goal to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.

Reinhart recorded his fourth career game with a shorthanded and power play goal in the same game, most in franchise history. Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for Florida, which improved to 5-1-1 in the past seven games.

Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves.

J.J. Moser and Max Crozier scored for Tampa Bay. Brayden Point finished with a pair of assists. Jonas Johansson, making his seventh consecutive start in place of Andrei Vasilevskiy, made 19 saves.

Reinhart scored shorthanded 2:16 into the first period for Florida’s fourth shorthanded goal of the season. Reinhart passed Scott Mellanby on the play for sixth most points in franchise history.

The Panthers made it 2-0 at 3:48 moments after Yanni Gourde hit the crossbar on an open chance above the crease before Lundell finished off a 3-on-1 rush.

Marchand made it 3-0 at 11:48 of the second period before Reinhart notched a power play goal with 1:52 remaining.

Crozier scored his first career goal with 33 seconds left in the second. Moser cut it to 4-2 deficit 2:11 into the third period. But Verhaeghe scored his eighth goal in his past 10 games at 6:37 to regain a three-goal lead.

The Panthers played most of the third period without defenseman Gustav Forsling, who blocked a shot from Nikita Kucherov off his arm at 3:03 of the third. Forsling went down the tunnel to the locker room and did not return.

Lightning leading goal scorer Brandon Hagel did not play the final 15-plus minutes of the third period after a hit by Florida defenseman Seth Jones.

Panthers: Host Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.

Lightning: Host Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl