#Florida Panthers

#Florida Panthers

But for most of the two teams' existence, the rivalry was purely geographical, with the hockey world largely focusing on other feuds or thriving franchises. Despite achieving far less success in the 23 years after they made the Cup Final in 1996, the Panthers won the lion's share of games against the Lightning. In that same 23-year span, the Cats had a sub-.500 record against the Lightning in only seven seasons, and the club's all-time record against their in-state rival is 79-54-29.

The Florida Panthers will be without one of their top defensive forwards, Eetu Luostarinen, on a week-to-week basis after he suffered a unique off-the-ice injury. According to team reporter Jameson Olive, head coach Paul Maurice announced that Luostarinen recently suffered burns during "a barbecue accident." Luostarinen's burns weren't severe enough to require an overnight hospital stay, but the Finnish forward's return date is unknown until he feels comfortable enough to put his gear back on.

On Friday, rookie Jack Devine tallied twice in the third period to lead the Checkers to a 4-1 victory. Brian Pinho's power-play goal, assisted by Devine, tied the tilt 19 seconds into the final frame. Devine scored the eventual game-winner 1:41 later, from Pinho and Nolan Foote, and then got the clincher into an empty net at 19:12. Riese Gaber notched a second empty-netter 30 seconds later to complete the scoring. Cooper Black stopped 17 of 18 shots to outduel Syracuse's Ryan Fanti.

Sidney Crosby opened the scoring and closed the door on the Cats with a pair of power-play goals. The legendary Penguin also had an assist to earn First Star honors. A tripping penalty on Jeff Petry led to Crosby's first marker 6:24 into the tilt. After Erik Karlsson ripped a shot towards the net that struck Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin and Rust joined forces to work the puck free to set up Crosby's wrister, which easily beat a swimming Sergei Bobrovsky, from the left circle.