TAMPA, Fla. — Matthew Tkachuk scored the first and last goals for Florida, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots, and the Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round of the Eastern Conference playoff series.
Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart and Steven Lorentz also registered goals for the Panthers, who will get their chance to sweep the series on Saturday night in Tampa.
Tkachuk gave Florida the early lead on a feed from behind the net by Anton Lundell and buried a wrist shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Tkachuk later added an empty-netter with 32 seconds left to clinch the win.
“We’re playing some good hockey right now, and we’re happy with where we’re at right now in the series,” Tkachuk said. “The fourth (win) is the hardest, everyone says that, so we have to come out absolutely ready to go on Saturday.”
The Lightning got goals from Steven Stamkos, Tyler Motte and Nicholas Paul. Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots in the losing effort.
Tampa Bay appeared to have tied the game with 18 seconds left in the first, but Anthony Cirelli’s goal on the Lightning’s third power play attempt was disallowed following a video review and ruled the play was offside.
The Lightning finally evened the score, as Stamkos scored just 44 seconds into the second, and then Motte gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead just 2:12 later.
After Florida withstood several minutes of pressure from Tampa Bay's offense, the Panthers tied it at 2 on Reinhart’s goal at the top of the right circle at 9:58 of the second.
Montour gave Florida a 3-2 lead with 3:30 left in the second on a blast from the blue-line, and then Lorentz doubled the lead with a shot from the slot at 9:41 of the third.
Paul's goal cut it to 4-3 with 5:10 left, and also got the home crowd back into the game.
Tampa Bay — who was the NHL's best power play team in the regular season — went 0-for-4 on Thursday . Florida did not have a power play.
"I thought the big story will be penalty killing," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s just such a dominant, highly skilled, power play.”
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