The Tampa Bay Lightning weathered a series of ebbs and flows on their way to a 4-3 shootout victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night. Buoyed by offensive contributions from key sources and Anders Lindback’s best performance of the year, the Lightning squeaked by their division rival and moved their record to a sparkling 8-3-0.

It didn’t take long for the Bolts to get on the board, as Martin St. Louis opened the scoring just 41 seconds into the contest with his seventh goal of the year. The goal came as St. Louis and Steven Stamkos took advantage of some Panthers players who got caught flatfooted. With speed, Stamkos cut into the Panthers’ zone and sent a great pass over to St. Louis in the slot; number-26 made no mistake and tipped the puck past Jacob Markstrom.

Less than four minutes later, Steven Stamkos doubled the Lightning lead with his eighth of the year. Stamkos jumped on a juicy rebound and slapped the puck past Markstrom. Ryan Malone and Matt Carle were credited with assists on the goal. For Malone, the assist marked his second of the evening. For Carle, the assist marked his eighth point of the season.

The Panthers notched their first of the night with just over six minutes left in the opening frame. Following a scramble in front of Lindback, Shawn Matthias backhanded his first of the season past the lanky goaltender.

After successfully killing four penalties in the first 27 minutes of play, the Lightning finally got power-play opportunities of their own in the second period. The team failed to convert with Brian Campbell off for tripping, but did manage to score with the Panthers a man short thanks to a ‘too many men’ call. Radko Gudas sent a snapshot in from the point which deflected off Mike Weaver and past Markstrom to give the Bolts a 3-1 lead midway through the second.

Things took a turn for the unusual about three minutes later. With Radko Gudas down on the ice in front of the Panthers’ bench, one of the Cats squirted him with a water bottle. Understandably upset, Gudas got up and slammed his stick against the boards. No problem, right? Wrong. Gudas was assessed two minutes for slashing, a ten minute misconduct, and a game misconduct. Jon Cooper was visibly upset with the call, and rightfully so.

Losing a top-four defender midway through a game wouldn’t be easy for any team. Playing their third game in four nights, the Lightning started to wane as the third period wore on. Five minutes in, Nick Bjugstad deflected his first of the year past Lindback to pull the Panthers within one. Just over three minutes later, Brad Boyes tied the game with his fifth of the season after a frighteningly dreadful Ondrej Palat give away. Just like that, the Lightning found themselves right back at square one.

The game moved into the overtime period, which solved nothing. A shootout was needed. Valtteri Filppula and Brad Boyes traded goals before Steven Stamkos scored the game winning shootout marker.

After defeating the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday in Tampa, the Lightning went into Sunrise and did what good teams do often; the Bolts manufactured a win. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s three straight wins for the Lightning. Sitting at the top of the Atlantic Division, the Bolts will now head to New Jersey for a date with the Devils on Tuesday.

As always, thanks for reading.

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