Lightning win battle of netminders, defeat Panthers 2-1

Andre Vasilevskiy outdueled Sergei Bobrovsky and Steven Stamkos scored his fourth goal in the past three games, leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla. Vasilevskiy made 27 saves. Bobrovsky, his Florida counterpart and fellow Russian, had a season-high 46 saves.

Stamkos has a team-high 11 goals. Before this surge, he had gone six straight games with no goals and just two assists. Alex Killorn added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who are 8-5-2 on the road this season. Yet, in an odd recent trend, the Lightning are 1-4-0 in their past five home games.

The Lightning entered Tuesday ranked second in the NHL in goals per game (3.64). Tampa Bay played its second straight game without center Tyler Johnson, due to a lower-body injury. He has seven goals and seven assists this season.

The Panthers, who entered the game ranked fourth in the league in goals per game, went 0-for-3 on their power play and could not get on track until late. Evgenii Dadonov scored the only goal for the Panthers, and it came with 2:00 left in the third.

The Panthers are now 3-2-0 on this nine-game homestand, which is the longest in franchise history. Tampa Bay opened the scoring with 6:42 expired in the first period. Stamkos stole the puck from Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson, deked Bobrovsky and reached around him, hitting the back of the right side of the net. Panthers fans wanted Stamkos whistled for tripping Matheson, but there was no call.

The Lightning extended their lead to 2-0 with 4:51 gone in the second. Bobrovsky gave up a long rebound on an Anthony Cirelli shot, and linemate Killorn cleaned up for the goal. Florida appeared to cut its deficit to 2-1 with 8:51 left in the third as a Brett Connolly deflection on a Mackenzie Weegar shot got past Vasilevskiy. But the goal was waved off when it was ruled that Connolly's stick was high - above the crossbar -- when he made the deflection.

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