A lot of goals and players making their case. Highlights from the Panthers’ scrimmage

Five takeaways from the Florida Panthers’ first scrimmage of training camp on Thursday.

Owen Tippett and Carter Verhaeghe impressed. Tippett, the Panthers’ 2017 first-round pick, came into training camp with a chip on his shoulder. Verhaeghe entered looking for increased playing time after being used in a smaller role with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The two wingers made their presence known, each scoring two goals to lead the Red Team to a 8-1 win over the White Team at the BB&T Center.

The other goal scorers for the red team: Max Gildon in the first period, Mason Marchment in the second, and Eetu Luostarinen and Marchment in the third. Noel Acciari found the back of the net for the White Team in the second period.

Forward lines are taking shape. Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair have worked together as Florida’s top forward trio since training camp began on Monday. That continued in Thursday’s scrimmage, as the three were the top line for the Panthers’ Red Team.

The other two lines that have essentially been constants since camp started, although there was some mixing and matching during the scrimmage: Alex Wennberg centering Frank Vatrano and Brett Connolly and Acciari centering Vinnie Hinostroza and Ryan Lomberg. Those were the top two lines for the White Team on Thursday.

And with the way they played on Thursday, Verhaeghe, Luostarinen and Tippett — the second line for the Red Team in the scrimmage — very well might round out the lines when the season starts on Thursday.

The other two lines Thursday: Aleksi Heponiemi centered Grigori Denisenko and Scott Wilson as the White Team’s third line, and Cole Schwindt centered Marchment and Serron Noel on the Red Team’s third line.

The Panthers continue to get a long look at their backup goaltender candidates. With Sergei Bobrovsky still deemed unfit to play, the bulk of the Panthers’ practice time in net through the first three days of on-ice work has gone to Chris Dreidger and Sam Montembeault.

That continued with Thursday’s scrimmage, with Montembeault in goal for the red team and Dreidger goaltending for the white team.

Montembeault held his own, giving up just the one goal to Acciari and looking relatively calm in net throughout the night.

Dreidger, on the other hand? It wasn’t his night. And that’s concerning with Bobrovsky’s status for the season opener still up in the air.

Some key players were still missing. In addition to Bobrovsky, forwards Patric Hornqvist and Juko Lammikko as well as defenseman Markus Nutivaara are still deemed “unfit to play,” the catch-all term the NHL is using now during the age of COVID-19.

Under NHL guidelines, teams are not allowed to comment on whether players are out due to COVID-19 testing or are in contact tracing. However, the league will announce if players test positive once the season begins.

Bobrovsky is obviously the biggest absence, but Hornqvist is also expected to play a role on the team as well as a bottom-six forward.

Defenseman Chase Priskie, who missed a couple days in camp, was on the ice for the scrimmage and primarily paired with rookie Brady Keeper.

The third period was all special teams. There was a mix of power play/penalty kill and four-on-four work over the final 20 minutes. The team also held a five-minute overtime period and did a round of shootouts to close the scrimmage.