WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

12/15 21:07 CST Sam Reinhart scores twice to lead Panthers over Lightning 5-2 Sam Reinhart scores twice to lead Panthers over Lightning 5-2 By ERIK ERLENDSSON Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. (AP) --- Sam Reinhart scored a shorthanded goal and a power play goal to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night. Reinhart recorded his fourth career game with a shorthanded and power play goal in the same game, most in franchise history. Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for Florida, which improved to 5-1-1 in the past seven games. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves. J.J. Moser and Max Crozier scored for Tampa Bay. Brayden Point finished with a pair of assists. Jonas Johansson, making his seventh consecutive start in place of Andrei Vasilevskiy, made 19 saves. Reinhart scored shorthanded 2:16 into the first period for Florida's fourth shorthanded goal of the season. Reinhart passed Scott Mellanby on the play for sixth most points in franchise history. The Panthers made it 2-0 at 3:48 moments after Yanni Gourde hit the crossbar on an open chance above the crease before Lundell finished off a 3-on-1 rush. Marchand made it 3-0 at 11:48 of the second period before Reinhart notched a power play goal with 1:52 remaining. Crozier scored his first career goal with 33 seconds left in the second. Moser cut it to 4-2 deficit 2:11 into the third period. But Verhaeghe scored his eighth goal in his past 10 games at 6:37 to regain a three-goal lead. The Panthers played most of the third period without defenseman Gustav Forsling, who blocked a shot from Nikita Kucherov off his arm at 3:03 of the third. Forsling went down the tunnel to the locker room and did not return. Lightning leading goal scorer Brandon Hagel did not play the final 15-plus minutes of the third period after a hit by Florida defenseman Seth Jones.

Up next Panthers: Host Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. Lightning: Host Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl