Panthers Beat Tampa In Home Opener

SUNRISE, FL — The Florida Panthers skated away with a 5-4 win against the Tampa Bay Lightening on Saturday in the club's home opener at the BB&T Center. Five different players scored for the Cats as the two Florida clubs split the series with wins at home. Both teams were off on Sunday.

“We’ve asked them to empty their tanks and concentrate on the structure and details that we’ve talked
about in the past, and they’ve done just that," said Panthers Head Coach Bob Boughner following Saturday's game. "I think the emotions took over a little bit in the third period and we retailed a little and gave them a chance to get back in, but we found a way to win. That was my pregame speech: good teams find a
way to win, good teams never lose two in a row. If we just stick with the plan it’ll work.” (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Miami Patch, and click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Tampa Head Coach Jon Cooper said that the Panthers out skated his Bay Street Bullies. “It was our speed. When we had the ability to get to a loose puck, they beat us to it," he said. "We didn’t play fast anywhere on the ice. Even defensively we didn’t play fast. We didn’t shut them down down-low. We didn’t separate the man from the puck. We let them get out of corners and once you do that with a team, eventually it’s going to end up in your net. That’s what happened in the third.”

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Panthers center Vincent Trocheck said it was a good sign to have goals from so many different players. “I think that’s going to be a big part of our team this year," he explained. "It’s going to have to be spread out quite a bit. We can’t just be relying on [Aleksander Barkov] and [Jonathan Huberdeau] to score all the goals.”

Goaltender James Reimer would have preferred not to have given up the four goals to get the win.

“You never want to let in four," he said. "But at the end of the day you want to win. I made just as many saves as I needed to to get the win. I thought the guys battled hard and we played real well. Like
any game, whether you win or lose, there are things you did well and things you need to get better at. I think today it was good to get the win and we’ll keep on building.”

Forward Nick Bjugstad scored his first goal of the season on Saturday.

“It felt good. Playing with [Connor] Brickley and [Jared] McCann, I feel like we’re clicking pretty well. It’s fun out there," he said. "If we can continue to play like that and have the effort that we did and, um,
we had some lapses, but we can always touch up on that. I think the effort was definitely there and that made the difference tonight.”

The Panthers next take on the St. Louis blues at the BB&T. Tampa Bay takes on the Washington Capitals on Monday at home.

Florida Panthers center Vincent Trocheck (21) and Tampa Bay Lightning center Cedric Paquette (13) battle for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee).