Panthers forward Sam Bennett leaves Game 2 win with injury

SUNRISE, Fla. — Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett left early within the second interval of his crew’s 3-2 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night time with an upper-body injury.

When Bennett, who scored in Game 2 because the Panthers took a 2-0 lead on this Eastern Conference quarterfinal collection, exited the ice, he seemed to be holding his wrist. He went immediately towards the Panthers locker room as quickly as he skated off the ice.

Florida coach Paul Maurice didn’t have an replace in his postgame media availability aside from to say, “We’ll take a look at him [Wednesday] and we’ll have an update.”

Vladimir Tarasenko additionally scored the successful objective for the Panthers from Carter Verhaeghe, who lifted a backhander just below the crossbar 2:59 into time beyond regulation. It was the fifth time beyond regulation winner in Verhaeghe’s profession, approaching a play the place Matthew Tkachuk obtained the puck to Anton Lundell, who discovered Verhaeghe. He waited for Tampa Bay goalie (*2*) to commit, then put the puck over him to finish it.

Bennett opened the scoring 6:16 into the primary interval with assists from Tkachuk and Verhaeghe. He additionally assisted on Tarasenko’s objective earlier than the injury. He ended up enjoying a complete of seven:42 of recreation time earlier than leaving.

The veteran 27-year-old heart, who usually performs on Florida’s second line, completed the common season with 20 objectives and 41 factors.

In the win, Bennett’s teammate Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 21 pictures, together with some highlight-reel saves because the Panthers moved inside two wins of defeating their state rivals for the primary time in three postseason collection.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.