Panthers move into second in Central

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In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers hung a 5-1 loss on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

Alex Wennberg scored a hat trick for the Panthers, his second NHL hat trick.

“It would be great (to finish second), but we’re just looking to win the next game,” Wennberg said. “Of course, you can look at the standings, but I feel like the focus is just to play the game and do what we can do. We’ll see what happens. Obviously, we’re going to do our best and we’re excited to see where it’s going to take us.”

Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves to earn the win.

“Very pleased with his (Wennberg) effort, his game,”Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “The production part, it’s kind of the bonus plan with him because he’s reliable defensively, he’s always in the right play. And now if he starts thinking of his shot there, he can surprise goalies because he’s got a quick release and a lot of pace on his shot as well. Nice night when they went in.”

It was anything but a civil affair with the two teams combing for 31 penalties.

Luke Schenn scored the Bolts lone goal.

“Those guys competed hard and played well,” Tampa Bay’s David Savard said. “We just had a couple of weird bounces that kind of pushed the score in a different way. I think we did a lot of good things tonight.”

Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett scored a goal each and two points apiece in the win.

Sean Bennett scored off the power play for the Panthers.

“Amazing, his production,” Quenneville said. “That line together (Huberdeau, Owen Tippett), they look for another. They had a couple pretty looks there that could have easily gone in. He’s really been effective in a lot of ways. He brings a nice element to our team in the middle of the ice.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves in the loss.

“These are games 55 and 56, not Games 1 and 2 of the playoffs,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “I’m sure guys would be a little more careful than they would in situations like this. The physicality may stay the same, but maybe the recklessness won’t be there as much.”