On the brink of being eliminated on home-ice, the Florida Panthers came out and dominated, beating Tampa Bay 4-1. Despite the win, Florida is still down 3-2 in the series.
Spencer Knight
Former Boston College goalie Spencer Knight played the role of hero on Monday evening, stopping 36 shots in his playoff debut. It didn’t look too good for Knight in the first few minutes, though, as he gave up a goal on his first shot faced. However, Knight stopped the final 36 shots.
The 20-year-old became the youngest goalie ever to win an elimination game in the NHL. Knight also became the first goalie to ever appear in the NCAA and Stanley Cup Playoffs in the same season. It appears that Knight will start Game 6, rather than Sergei Bobrovsky or Chris Driedger.
Game Flow
Just 53 seconds in, rookie Ross Colton finished off a centering feed from Blake Coleman on a two-on-one to score the game’s opening goal on the first shot of the game. However, Knight would start to adjust, stopping 21 shots in the period.
In the second period, the game was taken over by the Florida Panthers. At 6:19 in the period, MacKenzie Weegar let a puck go that weaved its way through traffic and over Vasilevskiy’s shoulder to tie the game at one apiece. A few minutes later, the Panthers took the lead as Mason Marchment ripped a one-timer past Vasilevskiy. At the end of the period, Luke Schenn hauled down Anthony Duclair to give the Cats a power play.
Florida remained on the power play heading into the third, and took advantage. A quick shot from the slot by Aleksander Barkov hit Patric Hornqvist and deflected by Vasilevskiy. The rest of the period had the Bolts chasing the game, but Florida’s defense and Spencer Knight stood tall. With Vasilevskiy pulled, the Lightning still couldn’t find the back of the net. Then, Frank Vatrano scored an empty-netter to give Florida the 4-1 win.
Takeaways/ Notes
- Tampa Bay owned an all-time record of 13-1 when scoring first in a potential series-clinching game. However, Tampa Bay is now 13-2.
- Ross Colton’s goal at 0:53 marked the fastest to open a potential series-clinching game, besting Vincent Lecavalier (1:28 in Game 6 of the 2004 CF).
- Jonathan Huberdeau recorded his 11th career playoff assist to tie Robert Svehla for the most by a Panthers player in the postseason.
- Only four different goaltenders in NHL history have won when facing elimination at a younger age than Knight (20 years, 35 days).
- Spencer Knight (20 years, 35 days) is the second-youngest goaltender in NHL history to win his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, trailing only Don Beaupre (19 years, 202 days).
- Knight is the eighth goaltender in NHL history to win his postseason debut before age 21.
Next Up
Game 6 will occur on Wednesday night in Tampa Bay.