Harkins Scores Twice, but Young Panthers Pull Away From Lightning 5-3 in Preseason

TAMPA, Fla. — Preseason hockey is supposed to be a polite audition. Nobody told Jansen Harkins, who treated a September exhibition like a playoff elimination game and scored twice, or the Florida Panthers' kids, who took one look at a Lightning lineup stacked with real NHL names and decided to pull a 5-3 win out of it anyway.

On a Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena, the Panthers sent out a lineup that was mostly youngsters and newcomers. Tampa Bay answered with a good chunk of its regulars, including Nikita Kucherov. The scoreboard did not exactly reward the star power. Florida went to 2-0-1 in the preseason, and the Lightning left with a handful of strong individual auditions and a loss.

A Quiet First Period, Then a Late Jab

For most of the first period, this looked like the kind of game that gets forgotten by October. The two teams combined for just nine shots on goal in the opening 20, and the Panthers, who outhit Tampa Bay 16-13 in the period, allowed only five of them.

Then, with 16 seconds left, Bokondji Imama tipped in a long shot from Donovan Sebrango at 19:44 to make it 1-0 Panthers. It was Imama's first goal of the preseason, and it was the sort of netfront, dirty-area goal that tells you a young team knows exactly what job it was asked to do.

The second period opened with a Florida penalty kill and then a second goal. Kai Schwindt got his shot off a Hunter St. Martin forecheck and the puck found its way past Andrei Vasilevskiy at 2:29 to make it 2-0. The bounce was a little unlucky for Tampa Bay, and Schwindt was the first to admit it.

"Just a nice hard forecheck, and I was lucky enough to get a bounce there and put it off the back of the goalie," Schwindt said. "Yeah, I got lucky there, but I'll take it."

Harkins Answers, and Geekie Evens It Up

The Lightning did not stay down long. Less than a minute after Schwindt scored, Harkins took a drop pass from Ilya Mikheyev in the offensive zone, skated to the left hashmark and snapped a shot inside the left post past Cooper Black at 3:14. It was 2-1.

The equalizer was the prettiest goal of the night. Benjamin Rautiainen chipped the puck into open ice in the neutral zone, and Sam O'Reilly and Conor Geekie were off on a 2-on-0. O'Reilly dished it to Geekie, who roofed it over the 6-foot-8 Black at 13:09 to make it 2-2.

"It's just getting on pucks," Geekie said. "Winning that one extra battle, I think Benny did a good job there today, and I just happened to be the guy that put it in."

Lightning coach Jon Cooper liked what he saw from the kids. "The trio was great," he said. "And usually when you put three young guys together, there's energy, there's excitement."

The Five-on-Three That Didn't Pay Off

Here is where Florida's night could have turned. Late in the second, the Lightning went on a 5-on-3 power play that lasted a full 1:55, with a chance to take the lead against a Panthers lineup full of AHL-level bodies. Tampa Bay did not score.

Black made a handful of saves during the kill, and Alexander Petrovic had a key clear to end it. The Panthers went a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill for the night, a number that matters more than it looks in a game where one team is pressing for goals.

"They're a good power play," said Petrovic, who led Florida's defensemen with 24:03 of ice time. "They were snapping it around. A couple good blocks, a couple of big saves on that."

A Wild Third Period

The third was a sprint. St. Martin, in his preseason debut, went to the net and redirected a cross-ice feed from Petrovic past Vasilevskiy's glove at 4:21 to make it 3-2 Florida. At that point the game felt like it belonged to the Panthers.

It lasted about a minute. A Ryan McDonagh shot found its way to Harkins at the net, and he cashed in the rebound at 5:29 for his second of the night and a 3-3 tie. He was thrilled to be there. "I had a blast out there today, and the fans were great," Harkins said. "It's always an electric barn."

And then the game flipped again, almost instantly. On the ensuing faceoff, Cole Reinhardt forced a turnover and scored on a breakaway at 5:35 for a 4-3 lead. Six seconds after Harkins tied it, the Lightning were chasing again.

The Turning Point

Call it the six seconds. Tampa Bay finally got level, then immediately gave the lead back on a breakaway. Reinhardt's goal was his third of the preseason, and it was a very quick answer to the Lightning's best push of the night.

The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy for the extra attacker late, and Sandis Vilmanis hit the empty net at 19:36 to close it out at 5-3.

Stats That Matter

Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for Tampa Bay. Black stopped 14 shots before giving way to Kirill Gerasimyuk, who stopped 11 of 12 in relief. Florida led 41-26 in hits and 18-6 in blocked shots, which is the kind of grind-it-out edge you expect from a lineup that is playing for jobs.

Reinhardt and Schwindt each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers. Petrovic and Sebrango were both plus-three. For the Lightning, eight different players recorded a point, and John Carlson led the team with 23:51 of ice time. TampaBayLightning.com's game recap ranked Harkins its first star for the two goals.

What It Means

This was never really about the final score, and Cooper made sure everyone knew it. "When I look at it as a whole, I don't sit here and look at the final score," he said. "Everybody is different in how they prepare for game one of the regular season."

For Tampa Bay, the story is the group of players pushing for opening-night spots. Harkins is making a real argument, Geekie looks comfortable at this level, and the young line that created the tying goal showed energy. For Florida, the win gave coach Paul Maurice his first look at a bunch of new players in the team's sweaters. "I thought we were pretty good on the routes that we're supposed to run," he said.

The two teams met again two days later at Amerant Bank Arena, and the Lightning took that one 3-2 in a shootout.

The Close

Preseason scores are written in pencil. Harkins' two goals, Geekie's roof job and Reinhardt's breakaway are written in something a little darker. When the real games start, somebody who scored in an exhibition is going to be standing in the lineup because of it.

Photo Credit: Samantha Diane/Undrafted