Panthers kids fall 3-2 to Lightning in shootout finale

Lightning 3, Panthers 2 (SO). Florida lost the preseason finale in Sunrise, and I'm still calling it a good night for the organization's young players.

The Panthers dressed an audition lineup, not an October lineup. That group led for more than half an hour and held Tampa Bay to 22 shots. They just couldn't close it, and the reason why is on them, not on Tampa.

How it went

The first period had some teeth. At 5:31, Dylan Duke took a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct, and Garnet Hathaway went off for cross-checking. Lucas Mercuri put Tampa ahead at 8:50. At 10:30, Sam Lafferty and Jeffrey Viel dropped the gloves.

Sandis Vilmanis tied it at 17:58, with Kai Schwindt on the assist. George Richards of Florida Hockey Now had it coming off a turnover, which is exactly the kind of goal a young winger has to score.

Matvei Shuravin, a 20-year-old defenseman, gave Florida the lead at 2:03 of the second. Gracyn Sawchyn and Mikulas Hovorka set it up.

Then the penalty box got crowded, and Benjamin Rautiainen tied it on a Tampa power play at 12:58 of the third. Overtime settled nothing.

In the shootout, Vilmanis scored first and Pontus Holmberg answered. Sawchyn and Uvis Balinskis were stopped, Maxim Groshev was stopped too, and Rautiainen ended it in the third round.

Three things from Sunrise:

1. Vilmanis looks like he belongs. A goal, a shootout goal, five hits and 20:15 of ice time is what a winger looks like when he's demanding a spot instead of hoping for one.

2. The young blue line held up. Shuravin logged 21:22 and scored. Hovorka had an assist and three shots in 19:22. Marek Alscher gave them 18:33 of quiet, steady minutes. Balinskis led all Florida skaters at 24:46 and even got a shootout look.

3. The whistles cost them. Florida took five minors after the first period. Kai Schwindt went off for tripping twice, the second at 12:21 of the third, and Tampa tied it 37 seconds later. Hathaway was also called for goalie interference at 12:58. You can't hand a lead back like that in October.

Ferda play of the night:

Donovan Sebrango. He drew the roughing call on Duke at 5:31. Richards also had him blocking a shot that may have saved a goal. Hathaway threw nine hits and Boko Imama threw eight, but the block is the one the room remembers.

What they said

The postgame quotes weren't up when this went live, so here's the message going in. Paul Maurice laid out the plan for the guys headed to Charlotte, per Rob Darragh of FloridaPanthers.com.

"We do something for Charlotte, and Charlotte does something for us," Maurice said. "We try to set them on a framework and a path that when they go down, it's really clear what we want."

Hovorka put it simpler: "I think it's just the whole concept in this organization is to be better every day."

Pabs' read

Akira Schmid made 20 saves on 22 shots and went the distance, while Dennis Hildeby matched him at the other end. The result doesn't count, but the ice time and the evaluation absolutely do.

I've watched this team through camps where the kids made cuts easy. This wasn't one of those. Vilmanis, Shuravin and Hovorka made the room think. Richards reported Toby Bjornfot, Casey Fitzgerald and Angus Crookshank went on waivers for Charlotte. The rest of the math comes before Tuesday.

The discipline is the one fix that matters, because everything else looked like an organization that knows exactly what it wants from its depth.

Next up

The real one. Florida opens the regular season Tuesday at Carolina, 5 p.m. ET at Lenovo Center, on ESPN.