Did the fat lady sing today for the Florida Panthers?
The Presidents Trophy curse is one game away from a nine-year streak, as the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, 5-1 to take a 3-0 series lead.
Reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy saved 34 of 35 shots faced, and has only allowed three goals through the entire series.
First Period:
The game started out as a very evenly matched game, as both teams had four shots through the first six minutes.
The Lightning would draw first blood 7:31 in when a deflected shot by Ryan McDonagh and Nikita Kucherov would fall into the hands of Corey Perry, who would tip it in past Bobrovsky from the left side.
A little over two minutes later, the game would have a pretty controversial moment. Brandon Hagel would cross-check Eetu Luostarinen onto the ice, ensuing a scrum. The refs would give Hagel a minor penalty, putting Florida on the power play.
Throughout the series with the Capitals and the first two games with the Lightning, Florida was an abysmal 0-for-25 on the power play. But, they would break that streak 38 seconds into the power play when Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov would set up Sam Reinhart, who put it home through Vasilevskiy.
Second Period:
Erik Cernak would answer back to regain the lead for the Bolts at 2:54 when Ross Colton would give Cernak a nice back-pass, and then Cernak would have a sensational goal top-shelf past Bobrovsky.
It would be the little things that would kill the Panthers again, as they had multiple chances to tie the game after Cernak’s goal. First it would be Barkov, who would send a shot from the right circle off the post. Also, on a Victor Hedman penalty, they had some close calls, narrowly missing several chances, including Huberdeau’s wide-open look that McDonagh deflected up over the net with his stick.
After all of that, the Lightning would blow the lead open to 3-1 when Nikita Kucherov (on an odd-man rush) passed the puck from the circle to Steven Stamkos, who would send a great one-timer past Bobrovsky from the top.
Third Period:
It would be a defensive third period for the Lightning, as they basically continued to just shut down a non-existent Panthers offense.
Bobrovsky was pulled with a little over four minutes remaining. Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos would score empty-netters to extend the victory to 5-1. Kucherov would have four points (goal, three assists), while Stamkos would have his second goal of the day.
Next Up:
The Lightning have a chance to close the series Monday night (on the second night of a back-to-back) in front of their home crowd at the Amalie Arena. Puck drop is at 7 PM.