Weiss Scores In Shootout For Panthers' Win
TAMPA (AP) - The Florida Panthers picked up a character victory.
Stephen Weiss scored in the fourth round of a shootout to help the Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Saturday night.
Radek Dvorak scored on a penalty shot, and Dmitry Kulikov and Shawn Matthias also scored in regulation for the Panthers, who stopped a three-game losing streak. Florida went 0 for 4 on the power play and has failed to score in 37 straight opportunities.
"We needed that, probably, more than they did," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. "We played some tight games this week and managed to find a way to lose them, so it was an important two points for us. I think the guys wanted to make sure that we worked for 60 minutes to get an opportunity to win the game."
Teddy Purcell, Dana Tyrell and Sean Bergenheim scored for the Lightning, who have lost two in a row after a five-game winning streak.
"I thought our effort was there," Tampa Bay right wing Martin St. Louis said. "We gave them a couple of their goals. We didn't make it hard enough for them to get their goals."
Both teams were coming off shutout losses Friday. Tampa Bay was beaten 6-0 by Washington, while the Panthers were blanked 3-0 by the New York Rangers.
"I thought we played really well for 60 minutes, as did they," Weiss said. "We competed back and forth all night."
Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun made 34 saves and stopped all four Lightning attempts in the shootout, while Tampa Bay's Dan Ellis stopped 24 shots.
Florida went up 3-2 on Matthias' goal at 8:31 of third, but Bergenheim pulled the Lightning even with backhand rebound goal with 6:45 left.
Purcell put the Lightning up 1-0 with a power-play goal from the low slot off a pass from Steven Stamkos at 10:21 of the first. Stamkos has 18 assists and 39 points this season.
Tyrell made it 2-0 on a rebound goal with 9:48 left in the second.
Dvorak got the Panthers to 2-1 on a short-handed penalty-shot goal at 12:22 of the second. It ended Florida's goal drought at 130 minutes, 8 seconds.
"That turned the game around, obviously," Lightning coach Guy Boucher said.
The Lightning have allowed six short-handed goals this season.
Kulikov tied at 2 from the low right circle 3:08 into the third. He stopped a personal stretch of not scoring a goal in 65 straight games, dating exactly one year to Nov. 27, 2009, against Toronto.
"It's tough when you give up a lead like that," Ellis said. "We've got to bear down and close that game."
