At the end of the first period at the St. Pete Times Forum, the Lightning and Florida Panthers are tied 2-2. The first period of the Lightning’s home opener was marred by penalties, resulting in three of four goals coming via the power play.
Teddy Purcell opened the scoring for Tampa at the 9:22 mark. Victor Hedman would score less than five minutes later on a great pass from Adam Hall to give Tampa the 2-1 lead
Tampa’s penalty kill unit struggled in the first period, giving up two goals in just the first 16 minutes of play. Tomas Kopecky notched the first goal of the game, after Hall was sent to the box for cross checking.
Stephen Weiss, who lead the Panthers with 21 goals last year, evened the game when he scored on the short side from an angle off a pass from Dmitry Kulikov, a goal that really shouldn’t get by Dwayne Roloson. Roli has given up two goals on just seven shots so far.