A Crazy Game 1 Resulted in a Bolts Win

The Tampa Bay Lightning got some key players back at the right time, including superstar Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov scored two power-play goals in his first appearance of the season, lifting Tampa Bay to a 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night in Game 1 of their playoff series.

Game Flow:

The game started out very evenly, with both teams getting opportunities early. The first major part of the game would happen at 7:18. Tampa would receive a two minute penalty, and this is where things would take off. Sam Bennett put the puck in the net 16 seconds into the power play, but it would be taken off because of goaltender interference. Despite the no-goal call, Bennett would go on to have two assists. On the next face-off, Yanni Gourde and Ryan McDonagh would set up Blake Coleman for a short-handed goal. McDonagh would have two assists on the night.

However, Florida would answer pretty quickly. Tampa Bay would get another penalty, and Florida answered two minutes later. Great passing by Florida would allow Aleksander Barkov to put the puck past Vasilevskiy. Florida would then take its first lead of the night at 16:31, when Carter Verhaeghe scored a one-timer from the high slot. Against his former team, it was Verhaeghe’s first career playoff goal.

In the second period, the momentum would swing back in Tampa’s favor. Nikita Kucherov would score two goals to give Tampa Bay the lead, 3-2. Kucherov, who missed the entire regular season with a hip injury after having surgery on Dec. 29, played his first game since Sept. 28 and proved to have no rust.

Down a goal in the third period, the Panthers drew even 1:27 into the frame when Jonathan Huberdeau scored a breakaway goal. Just over two minutes later, Huberdeau would make an elite pass to Owen Tippett that left him with a yawning net to tap the puck into to give the Cats a 4-3 lead.

Unfortunately, Bennett took a charging penalty at 12:19, leading to a Brayden Point goal. However, Brayden Point wasn’t done. With under two minutes left in regulation, Point streaked down the ice and solved Bobrovsky on the backhand, giving the Lightning a lead, and the eventual game-winning goal.

Takeaways/Notes

• It was just the fourth playoff game in NHL history with four lead changes.
• Aleksander Barkov posted his first career multi-point playoff game. Barkov has recorded at least a point in each of his past five postseason games.
• Jonathan Huberdeau registered his first career multi-point playoff game. Huberdeau is the eighth Panther in franchise history to record at least three points in a playoff game.
• Keith Yandle notched two assists, his ninth career multi-point playoff game. He is the third Panthers defenseman in club history to record multiple multi-assist playoff games.
• Radko Gudas’ 11 hits were the most by a Panther in a playoff game since the NHL began tracking hits.
• Owen Tippett became the first Panthers rookie to record multiple points in their first career playoff game in franchise history. Tippett is the third Panthers rookie to register a multi-point game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
• Brayden Point posted his 4th career multi-goal game in the playoffs.

Next Up

Game 2 of the series will occur on Tuesday, May 18th, at 8:00 PM EST.