Overview
- Tampa Bay beat Florida 4-2 in Sunrise as Nikita Kucherov scored twice at the 23rd and 60th minutes.
- Jake Guentzel and Pontus Holmberg added goals for the Lightning, while Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand scored for the Panthers.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 26 shots, marking his 14th victory of the season and the 345th of his NHL career.
- Sergei Bobrovsky recorded 21 saves on 24 shots for defending champion Florida.
- The result placed Tampa Bay second in the Atlantic Division with 45 points from 37 games and Florida fourth with 42, with the Lightning hosting Montreal next and the Panthers facing Washington at home.