After falling behind early in their game against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning, led by a core of ‘Tampacuse’ players, battled back to force overtime and eventually grab the victory.

The Panthers’ power-play was firing on all cylinders on Thursday. Just over five minutes into the game, Jonathan Huberdeau picked up the puck after a Tom Gilbert shot squeaked through Ben Bishop’s pads and potted it to give the Cats a 1-0 lead. The young Panthers star struck again on the man-advantage to make it 2-0 just minutes into the middle frame when he took a perfect feed from Brian Campbell and sent the puck past the Lightning netminder.

It wasn’t the start that the Lightning were looking for, but they didn’t give up. Despite the fact that they didn’t test Tim Thomas all that much through the first 30 minutes of play, the Lightning did manage to get themselves back in the game. Tyler Johnson banged home a great pass from Ondrej Palat just over eight minutes into the second to cut the deficit in half. Just as the Palat/Johnson combo has done so many times in Syracuse and Norfolk, it produced a big goal at a key time for the Lightning.

Richard Panik tied the game about seven minutes into the third when he and Marty St. Louis teamed up on a shorthanded two-on-one rush. The Slovakian prospect made a nifty spin move and put the puck past Jacob Markstrom, who took over from Tim Thomas midway through the second. Panik, much like Johnson and Palat, is fighting for a spot on the Lightning’s opening night roster. His versatility and unique combination of size and skill certainly make him an attractive option for Jon Cooper’s coaching staff.

Jacob Markstrom and Ben Bishop were both perfect through the rest of regulation, and so the game went into the overtime period. Nikita Kucherov won the game for the Lightning with less than a minute remaining in the five minute session. The win improves the Lightning’s preseason record to a very impressive 5-1-0. While some will say that it’s only preseason, the fact remains that the Lightning are playing well right now. Even though exhibition games mean nothing, the confidence boost that comes from winning can’t be underestimated.

The Lightning will head to Sunrise to take on the Panthers on Saturday for the third and final time this preseason. Reports indicate that the team won’t make its final cuts until after that contest.

As always, thanks for reading.

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