*Photo from Bay News 9*
Florida wins series 4-1
The battle of Florida now has a new champion. Niko Mikkola had a goal and an assist, Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had two goals and an assist, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 Monday night in Sunrise.
With multi point games from Barkov, Verhaeghe, Mikkola, and Matthew Tkachuk who had two assists, the Panthers knocked out their in state rival in the Lightning, becoming the second team to win a series so far. It's an extra sweet win after being knocked out by the Lightning twice before.
Tkachuk said of the series win that "Just to be in a playoff series against your biggest rival is so cool and so much fun to begin with. To come out on top, be a part of the team that was able to do that for the first time makes it more special. We’re probably going to be playing our next-biggest rival, so there will not be an emotional letdown."
After a scoreless first period, Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead just 45 seconds into the second period with Mikkola and Barkov assisting. Barkov scored shorthanded at the 12:38 mark of the period to double the lead to 2-0. Victor Hedman got one back for the Lightning 59 seconds later, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Barkov scored 11:06 into the 3rd period for the Panthers, extending their lead to 3-1. At the 14:16 mark of the period, Evan Rodrigues scored his first goal of the playoffs, making it a 4-1 score. Verhaeghe scored his second goal of the game on an empty net to make it 5-1 before Mikkola added an empty net goal of his own, making it a 6-1 final score.
Barkov said of his two goal game that "It feels nice to score goals, but I have said before that it does not matter on our team, Obviously, a lot of them have come from Verhaeghe, he gets a ton of big ones in the playoffs and regular season. Every player in our lineup can score, can do anything on the ice. That is what makes us special."
It was Sergei Bobrovsky in net all 5 games for the Panthers, picking up his 4th win to secure the series. Bobrovsky stopped all but one of the 32 shots he was tested with by the Lightning, giving him a stellar .969 save percentage.
Drawing the start for the Lightning on the other end of the ice was once again Andrei Vasilevskiy, who took his 4th loss of the series. Vasilevskiy turned aside 33 out of the 37 shots on goal the Panthers had, good for a .892 save percentage.
Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said of the loss that "Some casual fans will wake up in the morning and be like, ‘Well, Tampa Bay got blown out.' Anyone who follows this game knows that was not the case. There were a lot of things that didn’t go our way tonight, lot of things that didn’t go our way in the series. I know how fortunate our teams have been when we have won. You make your own breaks."
The Lightning head home for the offseason after the first round for the second year in a row, with captain Steven Stamkos a pending free agent. The Panthers await the winner of the series between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs as their second round opponent.
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