On Monday (February 6) night, the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-1 at home in the FLA Live Arena.
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Matthew Tkachuk had a five-point night with two goals as the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-1 on Monday night, just two days after being named MVP of the NHL All-Star Game on home ice. Tkachuk, who was also awarded NHL Opening Star of the Week for his All-Star performance, assisted on the Panthers’ first three goals.
“I’m tired now,” Tkachuk said. “It is definitely a long weekend. I know people think it’s fun and stuff, but there is a lot going on. I had an unreal time this weekend and there’s nothing better than coming back, seeing the guys … and we’re really looking forward to a good home stretch to end the year.”
With his five-point night, he became the NHL’s fifth player to reach 70 points this season, passing Jonathan Huberdeau for the most points in team history through the first 50 games of a season. Huberdeau scored 70 points in 50 games last season before being traded to Calgary for Tkachuk.
Both clubs had just returned from the All-Star break, with Florida goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky looking sharp with 32 saves after being sidelined since Jan. 19 after getting injured in Montreal.
In addition to Tkachuk’s goals, Florida also scored in the victory on goals from Sam Bennett, Eetu Luostarinen, Eric Staal, Carter Verhaeghe, and former Tampa Bay forwards Carter Verhaeghe. For Tampa Bay, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 42 saves. Nikita Kucherov, an All-Star, scored for Tampa Bay at 3:02 of the second to make the score 2-1.
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At 8:04 of the first period of the third encounter between the two intrastate rivals, Verhaeghe capitalized on a great feed from Tkachuk to give Florida the lead. Bennett scored Florida’s second goal at 1:42 of the second period after receiving a feed from Tkachuk who was standing behind the goal and finding himself all alone in front of Vasilevskiy.
Before the session was up, the Panthers added two more goals. Tkachuk scored a spectacular goal in which he used his stick to catch the rebound of a Verhaeghe shot in the air and then whacked it past Vasilevskiy. The Panthers struck first in the third period to convert this into a blowout, with Staal scoring at 2:53 and Verhaeghe scoring a little under three minutes later. Tkachuk scored his second goal of the match with 6:37 remaining.
Watch the match highlights below.
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