Panthers roll vs. Lightning after routing Hawks
If you’re still not quite sold on the Florida Panthers being for real this season, they sure did their part to send a message this weekend with two of the more impressive victories of the year.
After shutting out the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night, they followed that up Saturday by snapping the Tampa Bay Lightning’s seven-game winning streak with an equally impressive 5-2 win.
That means in a span of 24 hours they not only beat the two teams that were in the Stanley Cup Final last season, they absolutely dominated them, outscoring them by a 9-2 margin.
The only two goals they allowed came in the final minutes of Saturday’s game when they already held a four-goal lead.
Not only were Tampa Bay and Chicago both in the Final a year ago, they were also two of hottest teams in the league coming into the weekend. Before going into Florida the Blackhawks were winners in 19 out of their previous 24 games, while the Lightning had been quickly climbing the Eastern Conference standings thanks to their recent winning streak.
Saturday’s win gives Florida a five-point lead over Tampa Bay (and also Detroit thanks to its loss to Anaheim on Saturday) in the Atlantic Division. They pretty much put the game away in the second period thanks to a nine-minute stretch where they scored four goals and completely took over. They not only took a four-goal lead into the third period, they also had a commanding 30-18 edge on the shot chart.
From there, they turned the game over to goaltender Roberto Luongo as he continued his magnificent season in net. He had to hold off what was basically an extended Tampa Bay power play for most of the third period as Lightning coach Jon Cooper pulled his goalie with more than 10 minutes to play for an extra attacker.
The Lightning ended up generating a number of quality chances during the next six minutes only to have Luongo slam the door shut. A Brian Campbell empty net goal finally ended any hope the Lightning may have had for a late rally.
It has been an incredible stretch of games for the Panthers over the past two months. After starting the season with just eight wins over their first 21 games, they are now 20-6-1 over their past 27.
The combination of Jaromir Jagr and Luongo playing like they’re a decade younger than they actually are, as well as the development of their newest young stars, everything is coming together at exactly the right time for the Panthers.
The Florida Panthers just beat last season’s Stanley Cup teams in back-to-back games. (USATSI)
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