SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Niko Mikkola had an assist on a goal that gave the Florida Panthers an 8-0 lead. Problem was, he’d been kicked out of the game a few minutes earlier and nobody noticed.
It was that kind of night between the Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Florida beat Tampa Bay 7-0 in the preseason finale for both clubs Saturday night, though the score was irrelevant. There were 64 penalties for 312 minutes on the stat sheet, including 13 game misconduct penalties — seven for Tampa Bay, six for Florida.
Florida had 17 power-play chances in the game, by the NHL’s count.
“It got silly. It got stupid by the end of it,” Florida forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It wasn’t really hockey out there.”
The parade to the penalty boxes started about two minutes into the game when Tampa Bay’s Scott Sabourin — who was among six players the Lightning called up for the game — went after Florida’s Aaron Ekblad. Sabourin got a major penalty after playing only 19 seconds.
“It made you think there might be something coming,” Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen said, when asked what he thought when he saw the Lightning called up players for the game.
What would have been the eighth Florida goal of the night, midway through the third period, was taken away 15 minutes after Jesper Boqvist scored. Off-ice officials realized that Mikkola couldn’t have had an assist on the play — since he’d been ejected earlier in the period.
The teams skated with the scoreboard saying Florida led 8-0 for about five minutes of actual game time, before officials informed both teams that the goal had been taken away and Mikkola had to leave the game.