*Photo from TheScore*
Tampa Bay leads series 3-2
Sergei Bobrovsky and Chris Driedger were not an effective goalie tandem for the Florida Panthers in their first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, with goalie changes almost becoming a nightly occurrence for the Panthers. So Joel Quenneville decided to shake things up. He brought in 20 year old Spencer Knight, who is in his rookie season and has only a handful of professional games under his belt.
Turns out, Quenneville was right to bring in the youngster. Knight stopped 36 shots, Mason Marchment scored, and the Panthers topped the Lightning with a 4-1 win Monday night, keeping their season alive for at least one more game with the win. They now trail the series 3-2 as they head to Tampa Bay for game 6.
Knight allowed a goal to Ross Colton on the first shot of the game, and it seemed like it was going to be a long night for the Panthers. Knight then proceeded to save the next 36 shots he faced, earning the win in a dominant outing for the rookie out of Boston College.
Knight said of winning his first playoff game that "For me, I just approached it like I did every other hockey game, like my first game, second game here, whatever it may be, it was all pretty much the same. I was a little nervous, but I remembered just to play hockey. I controlled what I can and just had fun."
MacKenzie Weegar got the Panthers on the board 6:19 into the second period, tying the game at 1-1 with his first goal of the playoffs. 10 minutes later, Marchment gave Florida a 2-1 lead on a great play from Alexsander Barkov. In the 3rd, Patric Hornqvist scored on the power play 35 seconds into the period, and Frank Vatrano scored an empty net goal as time was winding down to seal the 4-1 win.
Barkov said of the win that "It was awesome. Awesome atmosphere. Awesome feeling. We were excited to play, and a good result too. We're excited to go to Tampa right now. We've played enough against them. We know how they play. We know who is on the ice. We know how to play against them. We just have to do it all the time. Obviously today was a good game. We've got to build on this, go to Tampa and keep getting better."
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the loss for the Lightning in goal, stopping 34 of 37 shots, for a .919 save percentage. Vasilevskiy had good numbers throughout, but he couldn't outduel Knight on the other side, so he got stuck with the loss. The Lightning still hold the series lead, and can advance to the second round with a win in game 6.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said "That's a really good hockey team over there. They weren't going to just roll over and die. It's two really good hockey teams going at it. We knew it was going to be a tough series from the beginning. We put ourselves in a good position to go home for Game 6 and try to win a series. There's no point in dwelling on the past now. We have a 3-2 series lead. We weren't able to close it out tonight and we'll expect a better effort from our group next game."
Game 6 is on Wednesday night in Tampa Bay, with Vasilevskiy and Knight starting in goal.
Comments
Post a Comment