This series was supposed to be a high-scoring affair, but you would never have known that by watching game one of the ECF.
The Florida Panthers played a smothering defense in shutting out the New York Rangers 3-0 to take game one of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Matthew Tkachuk got the Panthers on the board at 16:26 of the first period to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead, and that was all that Florida would need as Sergei Bobrovsky turned away 24 Ranger shots to provide Florida with the 1-0 series lead.
Segei Bobrovsky Continues To Dominate In Goal
The 3-0 shutout was the second of Bobrovsky’s career.
Tkachuk was quick to deflect the credit to his teammates and talked about the ultimate goal, which is to just win, baby.
“I don’t put any pressure on myself to score or produce offense. I guess that’s a big part of my game, but at the end of the day, it’s not about myself here. There’s a way bigger goal ahead. Guys on our team that didn’t score tonight were some of our best players. It could be somebody different each and every night. There is so much buy-in from everybody that nobody cares who’s producing, doing whatever, or doing the hitting. At the end of the day, we’re here for wins. That’s it.”
Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett would add goals in the third to make the final score 3-0.
The Panthers came out with high energy and never let up for 60 minutes in their dominating performance.
I wrote in my ECF preview that this was the Panthers’ year. They are on a mission to take care of some unfinished business. And they played like it in game one.
Ryan Lomberg talked about that commitment to playing hard for 60 minutes and not letting up till the clock reads 0:00.
“That’s kind of how we roll. We play as hard as we can until there’s no more time on the clock. Then we take our recovery, go out, and do it again. It was great to see all the boys selling out toward the end of the game. We want it so bad.”
If the Panthers continue to play at the level they played in game one, this will be a very short series.
The Panthers Are Staying Out Of The Penalty Box
One big key for Florida was to stay out of the penalty box.
During the regular season, the Panthers led the league in penalties with over thirteen minutes a game. Since the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs began, the Panthers are averaging just 2.57 penalties a game.
The Panthers were penalized just twice against the Rangers in game one.
The Panthers have won four straight playoff games on the road and are 5-1 in this Stanley Cup run on the road.
Rangers Peter Laviolette expects better from his team in game two.
“We can play better. That wasn’t the best version of ourselves. We’ll look to see what they did, see what we can do better in all areas of the game. There’s more for us to give, more for us to do out there.”
Game two will be at Madison Square Garden on Friday at 8 PM before the Panthers return home for games three and four.