SUNRISE, Fla. -- In what might have been James Reimer's last game before becoming a father, the Florida Panthers goalie had a memorable night.

Reimer made 31 saves and Jonathan Marchessault scored a power-play overtime goal to lead the Florida Panthers past the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night at the BB&T Center.

"Everything is under control back home," said Reimer, Florida's backup goalie whose wife, April, is expecting a child any day now. "I was just worried about playing the game.

"You never when (the baby) is going to come. You just want the baby to be healthy. You come here, it's because things are pretty safe at home."

Reimer paused and then joked: "Although maybe I should go check my cell phone. ... At this point, she can come any time. I'm obviously looking forward to it."

Twitter was ablaze with a photo of Reimer and his wife holding up a baby shirt that read: "PROOF THAT GOALIES CAN SCORE"

Reimer was obviously kidding. He leaves the on-ice scoring to guys like Marchessault, who came through at 1:49 of the extra session.

A minute earlier, Panthers defenseman Jason Demers nearly had a breakaway before he was taken down by Tampa Bay's Tyler Johnson. The interference penalty on Johnson gave Florida a four-on-three power play.

"I made a bad play there," Johnson said. "He tried to jump by me, and he kind of grabbed me."

Vincent Trocheck subsequently carried the puck in, and Keith Yandle and Jussi Jokinen earned the assists that led to Marchessault's 14th goal of the season.

"I just had to bury it," Marchessault said of the great setup by his teammates.

The Panthers, who broke a four-game losing streak, also got a short-handed goal from Jokinen. It was just his second short-handed goal in five seasons.

The overtime win was a rarity for Florida interim coach Tom Rowe. The Panthers were 6-1 in OT before Gerard Gallant got fired but are only 3-9 in those situations under Rowe.

"We haven't had the success we wanted in OT and shootout this year," Marchessault said, "but we came out strong. It was a good overall game for us."

For Tampa Bay (22-22-6), Nikita Kucherov scored his 19th goal of the season and his seventh on a power play. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was solid in defeat, making 35 saves.

Tampa Bay also made a trade minutes before the start of the game, sending defenseman Nikita Nesterov to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Jonathan Racine and a 2017 sixth-round pick.

"This is the business side of things," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of the deal. "You wish you could keep everybody. ... You're going to end up moving good players."

Meanwhile, the Panthers (21-19-10) got two of their better players back from injury. Center Nick Bjugstad, who also had a broken hand at the start of the season, hadn't played since Jan. 6 due to a groin injury. Defenseman Alex Petrovic (broken ankle) played for the first time since Dec. 15.

Petrovic, in a way, affected the first two goals of the game -- even though he wasn't on the ice.

After a high-sticking penalty sent Petrovic to the penalty box, the Panthers needed just 10 seconds to score on a short-handed goal. Yandle got the puck to Trocheck, whose cross-ice pass to Jokinen resulted in his fifth goal of the season. Vasilevskiy dived to his right in an effort to get back, but it was too late.

The Lightning countered with Kucherov's goal, which came with just 12 seconds remaining on the Petrovic penalty. Alex Killorn, operating just a few feet from Reimer, passed out to Jonathan Drouin, whose cross-ice pass found Kucherov, completing the tic-tac-toe sequence.

But that was it for Tampa Bay's offense.

The Lightning, who have been on the road since Jan. 16, finished 2-2-2 on the trip.

"We're extremely frustrated," Cooper said. "Let's be honest: This was a long road trip. It was so long we sat through two presidents."

NOTES: Tampa Bay D Jason Garrison (illness) returned after missing two games. ... Panthers top-line C Aleksander Barkov, out since Dec. 28 with an apparent back injury, is skating and could return in a couple of weeks. ... The Panthers and Lightning finished 1-2 in the Atlantic Division last season but have slumped since. ... The Panthers just returned from a 0-2-2 trip, and three of those losses were by one goal. ... The Lightning are on a 3-7-2 skid. ... Florida scratched D Dylan McIlrath, RW Paul Thompson and D Jakub Kindl. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Luke Witkowski, LW Michael Bournival and D Nikita Nesterov. ... This was the first of a four-game Panthers homestand that continues Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators. ... The Lightning return home to face the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.