Panthers Defeat Lightning in Regular Season Finale

The Florida Panthers finished the 2021 regular season with a convincing 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning to wrap up second place in the Discover Central Division.

Chris Driedger stopped all 30 shots faced, securing home-ice advantage in Round 1 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Game Flow:

Both teams had equal opportunities early in the period, with some penalty kills and saves by both sides. However, the Panthers broke the ice at 15:19 in the first period, with a goal by MacKenzie Weegar.

Moving on, the second period would begin with a Tampa Bay power play after a tripping call on Ryan Lomberg. Florida would kill the power play. Tampa Bay would then get another power play at 7:17, but Florida stole the power play. Things went from bad to worse as Vasilevskiy tried to play the puck to himself behind the net and had it stolen by Lummikko who snagged the puck and tucked it inside the near post before Vasy could recover.

In the third period, Florida wasn’t done. Former Bolt Carter Verhaeghe scored his 18th goal of the season, beating Vasilevskiy cleanly at the net. Then with just under six minutes to go in the game, Alex Wennberg tipped a point shot by Radko Gudas past Vasilevskiy to make it 4-0.

Takeaways:

• With the secondary assist on Alex Wennberg’s goal, Keith Yandle became the 10th American-born defenseman in history to reach the 600-point mark.
• Monday’s attendance (5,040) marks the second consecutive game with a limited capacity sellout on Fan Appreciation Night.
• Tampa Bay’s line of Daniel Walcott, Mathieu Joseph and Gemel Smith made history on Monday night – they are believed to be the first all-Black forward line in league history.
• Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up four or more goals nine times this season. Four of those games have been against Florida, including each of the last two games.

Next Up

For the first time ever, the Lightning and Panthers will face off against each other in the playoffs. The time and date of Round 1 will be determined in the upcoming days.