East-leading Panthers’ franchise records keep falling in Tampa with nine straight goals, 11th straight road win

Florida’s nine goals were the team’s most in a road game, and their nine consecutive goals also set a club mark.

By MARK DIDTLER (Associated Press)

TAMPA — Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett each had two goals and two assists as the Eastern Conference-leading Florida Panthers won their franchise-record 11th consecutive road game by routing the Tampa Bay Lightning 9-2 on Saturday night.

The Panthers (36-15-4) hold a one-point lead over the Boston Bruins in the conference. Florida’s nine goals were the team’s most in a road game, and their nine consecutive goals also set a club mark.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves and set a team-record with his eighth straight road victory. Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist and Brandon Montour had a goal and two assists. Kevin Stenlund and Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida.

Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning, who had an eight-game home winning streak halted. Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed six goals on 22 shots before replaced by Jonas Johansson (six saves) to start the third.

NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov extended his point streak to 10 games with an assist on a power-play goal in the third period, but finished minus-4.

The Panthers went up 6-1 on a pair of power-play goals by Tkachuk during the opening 1:37 of the second period. He established a team mark for the fastest two goals to start a period by player in Panthers’ history.

Tkachuk has 12 goals and 25 points in the Panthers’ 11 consecutive road wins.

After Hagel opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game, the Panthers responded with four straight first-period goals by Montour, Bennett, Stenlund and Forsling.

Verhaeghe had two of Florida’s third-period goals.

Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad missed the game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day.

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Panthers: Host Ottawa on Tuesday night.