DANIEL WALCOTT

The Tampa Bay Lightning started three Black forwards in their regular-season finale against the Florida Panthers on Monday night, a rarity in NHL history — if not an absolute first. “First of all, they’re all in the NHL for a reason,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. Florida forward Anthony Duclair, who is Black, said he noticed it in the Panthers’ locker room pregame and was moved. Smith was in his fifth game of the season and Joseph has been in the lineup for all 56 Tampa Bay games in 2020-21. ... Coop did something really special here to promote this for young kids.”___AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

The Tampa Bay Lightning started three Black forwards in their regular-season finale against the Florida Panthers, a rarity in NHL history — if not an absolute first.

The Lightning opened the game with the first all-Black line in NHL history -- Mathieu Joseph, Gemel Smith and Daniel Walcott. The Panthers had the best point percentage in team history, best home record and best road record. COOPER’S MARKThis was the eighth full season on the Tampa Bay bench for Lightning coach Jon Cooper. He is 42 games shy of tying Doug Jarvis’ NHL record. Tampa Bay had five players appear in all 56 games -- Joseph, Brayden Point, Mikhail Sergachev, Yanni Gourde and Alex Killorn.

Chris Driedger stopped 30 shots to record his third shutout of the season, Juho Lammikko scored a short-handed goal, and the Florida Panthers secured home-ice advantage for the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the regular season finale for both clubs.