ORLANDO, FLA – As the Tampa Bay Lightning and Orlando Solar Bears were celebrating their newly minted affiliation, there were jobs on the line as the NHL preseason headed toward its finish. One of those jobs – the backup netminder to Andrei Vasilevskiy – appeared to be locked down Thursday night by a goalie who may or may not have had a little course knowledge on his side.
Tampa Bay goalie Louis Domingue stopped 36 shots in a 6-2 win by the Lightning Thursday night in Orlando (Photo courtesy of Scott Audette / Tampa Bay Lightning)
Louis Domingue made a strong case to be the number two netminder with a 36-save performance while rookie Mathieu Joseph netted two goals as the Lightning drubbed the Florida Panthers 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 10,781 at the Amway Center in Orlando. The game marked the return of the Lightning for the first time since 2013 as well at the beginning a new three-year deal to work with their ECHL brothers up Interstate 4.
Domingue, a 2010 fifth round draft choice of the Arizona Coyotes, cut his professional teeth with the ECHL’s Gwinnett (now Atlanta) Gladiators. Being a divisional rival of the Solar Bears, Domingue saw time between the pipes in the City Beautiful between 2012 and 2015 before finding his way to the NHL in 2015.
“I’ve had only good memories about the ECHL, especially Gwinnett, which was the place where I got my career going again,” Domingue said following his second preseason win in as many starts for the Lightning. “I played quite a few games here being in the same division so it was good to be back.”
Domingue’s work was especially clutch early as the Panthers were looking for a second straight victory over their Sunshine State rivals. It gave the Lightning offense time to rev up and the stars of the Tampa roster kicked in. Just 4:50 into the opening frame, Brayden Point spotted Victor Hedman cruising in from the blueline unmarked. Point’s cross-crease pass was perfect and Hedman rifled a shot past Florida goalie Roberto Luongo for his first goal of the preseason.
Florida quickly responded 97 seconds later when Juho Lammikko took the puck in the slot and put a shot low to Domingue’s stick side to even things at one.
Tampa’s Steven Stamkos (right) fires a shot at the Florida net against the Panthers Alexander Petrovic (Photo courtesy of Scott Audette / Tampa Bay Lightning)
Tampa took control of the scoreboard in the dying seconds of the first. During a four-on-four situation, Joseph sent a pass to the point where Hedman blasted away. The shot found the stick of Anthony Cirelli and beat Luongo with 6.5 ticks left on the clock.
The Lightning netted the only score of the middle frame when Yanni Gourde one-timed a pass from Point that trickled past Luongo for a 3-1 lead. Domingue continued to steal the show, adding another ten saves to his quickly growing total.
“He’s played really well in the couple of games that he’s been able to play – especially his puck handling ability’s been exceptional,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said about Domingue. “He was making the big saves for us when we needed him. It was kind of a back and forth game and when it was still fairly close, he made some big saves for us. That’s what we need a goalie to do and he’s been really good.”
Florida pulled closer early in the third when Frank Vatrano cashed in a rebound of a shot by Troy Brouwer during a power play 2:09 into the final frame. A second Panthers man advantage soon after could have gotten the Panthers back even but Domingue held the fort.
The Lightning took the cue from their netminder and quickly put the game out of reach. During a mid-frame power play, Joseph grabbed the rebound of a shot by Mikhail Sergachev and beat Luongo to restore the two-goal lead. Exactly one minute later, Alexander Volkov popped the puck up and over Florida’s netminder before Joseph closed things out with just under five minutes to go with his second goal of the period by walking the puck to the front and going around Luongo to score on the stick side.
“He’s definately put his best foot forward,” Cooper said about Joseph. “His speed is his biggest asset. He’s been using it and he’s finding himself around the net and putting those goals home. He’s definately made a positive impression on our coaching staff so far. You’re looking for guys to step up and he’s continued to do it through this camp so good for him.”
Asked whether he thought Domingue might have had some advantage having played in the neutral site building in Orlando, Cooper said he doubted it, preferring to attribute his goalie’s play to other things.
“I don’t know – maybe a few people in the stands that cheered for him a bit louder,” Cooper quipped. “It’s still 200 feet-by-85 feet. Maybe he was a little comfortable in here but when it gets down to game time, I don’t think guys really feel where they’re playing. They’re focused in on the game and that’s what he was tonight.”
Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins (left) and Tampa Bay Lightning CEO Steve Griggs drop the ceremonial puck to mark the affiliation between the Orlando Solar Bears and the Lightning (Photo courtesy of Scott Audette /Tampa Bay Lightning)
For his part, Domingue said that although he feels good about getting the number two spot, he is still driven by needing to prove himself every day.
“I’m not satisfied. I have something to prove every day. It’s been like that since I’ve been in the league,” Domingue said. “I’ve got to prove myself to the guys in the room. I’ve got to prove myself to management. I’ve got to prove myself to my goalie partner. It’s part of the job. You never take anything for granted when you’re in this league and so far I’ve felt pretty good in net, felt really comfortable with our defense with goalie touches behind [the net]. So far, so good.”
Game Notes: Florida outshot Tampa 38-32… Both teams went 1-for-2 on the power play… Danick Martel led the Lightning with five shots on net while Denis Malgin led the Panthers with seven shots… The game was the middle contest of three meetings between the teams in five days. Tampa and Florida will then meet again on October 6th to open the regular season and the home schedule for the Lightning at Amalie Arena.
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