Takeaways From Wednesday Night’s Clash With the Tampa Bay Lightning

Sandis Vilmanis sent the Florida Panthers home from Tampa Bay with a 2-1 win, bursting onto the rush and beating Andrei Vasilevskiy five-hole 13 seconds into overtime.

Spencer Knight finished the game with 26 saves on 27 shots.

Zac Dalpe got the Panthers on the board 3:30 into the second period, wiring a wrist shot from the point past Andrei Vasilevskiy on the power play.

Nikita Kucherov tied the game up with a blast of a slap shot off of a face-off with 4:33 to go in the game.

Jonah Gadjovich and William Lockwood both left the game with apparent injuries and did not return.

Here are some takeaways from Wednesday night’s preseason game in Tampa:

— Uvis Balinskis did a swell job running the makeshift power play unit the Panthers sent to Tampa. He moves the puck with speed and it was apparent throughout the night. He picked up the secondary assist on Dalpe’s goal, sending a point-to-point pass to Sandis Vilmanis who set Dalpe up to fire his shot from deep.

— Knight looked incredibly comfortable under fire. Tampa Bay dresses most of its NHL players against a lighter Panthers lineup and he was calm and collected throughout the night. That included a stretch in the second period where he made four consecutive difficult saves against Tampa Bay’s top power play unit. He looks NHL ready.

— Josh Davies was very active on the forecheck for the Panthers. He threw a few big hits early on that got on the Lightning’s nerves. One big hit on Victor Hedman warranted a horse-collar tackle from Kucherov seconds later. Tampa Bay’s Conor Geekie went after him for that, too, cross-checking him and dropping the gloves with him on the next shift. He finished the game with eight hits.

— Vilmanis had himself a night on top of his overtime winner, picking up the primary assist on Dalpe’s goal, throwing four hits and taking a team-leading nine shots.