Reinhardt strips McDonagh, and the Panthers' kids beat Tampa's regulars 5-3

Panthers 5, Lightning 3 (preseason). Florida sent a lineup built for Charlotte into a building full of Tampa's regulars and won anyway. That says more about Cole Reinhardt's roster case than it does about the Lightning.

How it went

Tampa dressed Kucherov, Point, Hedman, Guentzel and Vasilevskiy. Florida dressed a tryout. The tryout scored first. Bokondji Imama tipped one past Vasilevskiy at 19:44 of the first, with Donovan Sebrango and Sam Lafferty assisting.

Kai Schwindt made it 2-0 at 2:29 of the second, off a Reinhardt feed. Then the Lightning woke up. Jansen Harkins and Conor Geekie scored 10 minutes apart, and it was 2-2.

The period's real moment came late. Matvei Shuravin and Uvis Balinskis went to the box, and Tampa got a 5-on-3 that lasted 1:55. The kill held. Against that power play, that's the game.

The third was a tennis match. Hunter St. Martin backhanded one in at 4:21. Harkins answered at 5:29. Six seconds later, Reinhardt stripped Ryan McDonagh deep in Tampa's end and went five-hole on Vasilevskiy for the winner. Sandis Vilmanis added an empty-netter at 19:36.

Who stood out

Cole Reinhardt. A goal and an assist, first star, and his third goal of the preseason. Taking the puck off a two-time Cup winner and beating Vasilevskiy with it is a pretty loud way to ask for a job.

The Schwindts. Kai had a goal and an assist, playing on a pro roster with his brother Cole for the first time. Kai grabbed the headline. Cole finished minus-1 without a shot, which doesn't help him in the fourth-line race with Reinhardt.

The goalies. Cooper Black stopped 14 of 16 over two periods. Kirill Gerasimyuk stopped 11 of 12 in the third and got the win. Neither gave up a soft one, so the third-goalie race stays a coin flip.

The ferda play of the night: the 5-on-3 kill. Florida blocked 18 shots to Tampa's three and outhit the Lightning 43-24. Nate Bastian had seven hits and Imama had six. That's how a kid lineup survives a big-league power play.

What they said

Postgame comments hadn't been posted in text by publish time, so these came before the game.

Imama, on his game, in the Panthers' preview: "We talk about the physical game, the hits, the fights, but it's all about also managing it."

Reinhardt, a day earlier, to FloridaPanthers.com: "Just trying to earn my minutes, earn my right to be here and prove my right to be here."

He earned some Thursday.

Ferda take

Point, Guentzel, Kucherov and Hagel each went minus-2 without a point against a lineup of camp bodies. It's September, so nobody's filing that away. But Paul Maurice wanted to see young guys play fast inside a structure, and they did it for 60 minutes against real NHL players.

The roster call: Reinhardt has made this decision easy. He has three goals, he hits, and he just won a game with a takeaway. If he isn't on the opening night roster Tuesday, we'd be stunned.

Next

The Lightning come to Sunrise on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. The regular season opens Tuesday in Raleigh.