Florida

Panthers End Lightning's Lengthy Win Streak

The Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday for their second straight win

The Florida Panthers put an end to the Tampa Bay Lightning's seven-game win streak with a 5-2 victory on Saturday.

One of the wins during Tampa Bay's streak came against Florida earlier in the week. Not only did the Panthers exact revenge with this win, but they also padded their lead in the Atlantic Division. Florida now holds a five-point advantage over second place Tampa Bay.

After rolling off 12 wins in a row which set a franchise record, Florida sputtered with a four-game skid. With wins now on back-to-back days, the Panthers have quickly righted the ship again. It will take another impressive streak to catch the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals however, as they hold a 12-point lead over Florida.

One day after scoring four goals in a relatively short time frame, the Panthers scored four more in the second period alone. Florida would then go on to add a fifth goal during mop-up time in the final period.

The first goal of the day came off the stick of Jonathan Huberdeau. It was the eighth goal of the year for Huberdeau and the assists went to Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad. Florida has now won the last 14 games that Ekblad has played in.

Nick Bjugstad's power play goal later in the period put Florida up 2-0. Bjugstad's eighth goal of the season was assisted on by Huberdeau.

Over the next five minutes, Florida would add two unassisted goals. First it was Reilly Smith with his 15th goal of the season. Vincent Trocheck followed a short time after with his 13th score of the year.

In the third period, Brian Campbell's empty netter gave Florida a 5-1 lead. The goal had assists by Bjugstad and Jaromir Jagr on it.

Florida will look to make it three wins in a row when it hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

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