*Photo from AP News*
Florida leads series 1-0
The battle of Florida is back. Aleksander Barkov had two assists, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 3-2 victory Sunday afternoon in Sunrise.
In another playoff matchup with their in-state rival, the Panthers won a game one on home ice in the playoffs for the first time since 1997. The Lightning took down the Panthers in 6 games in the 2021 playoffs and swept them in 2022, a series which they outscored the Panthers 13-3.
Barkov, the Panthers captain, said of the matchup that "We have history between these two teams. Last two times, it didn’t work out well for us but we want to change it now. I think we have a great opportunity here and today was unreal. It’s been a great atmosphere here all season, but man, we missed the playoffs. We missed this atmosphere."
The Panthers took advantage to start this one. Sam Reinhart found the back of the net 6:17 into the first period, giving them a 1-0 lead with assists going to Barkov and Gustav Forsling. At the 16:04 mark of the first, Brandon Hagel found the equalizer for the Lightning, making it 1-1 with Anthony Cirelli and Steven Stamkos getting assists.
Carter Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead with a power play goal just 58 seconds into the 3rd period, with Tkachuk and Barkov assisting after a scoreless second period. Tkachuk scored on an empty net with 2:05 left in the game to make it 3-1 Panthers. Stamkos got one back for the Lightning when he scored with 10 seconds left.
Reinhart said of the win that "It is always nice to get off to a good start. We know there is a long way to go. We’re going one day at a time. We had a job to do today, and we executed. Now we rest up, recover and get ready for Game 2."
Sergei Bobrovsky was the starting netminder for the Panthers, to no one's surprise. Bobrovsky put together a strong showing in net, turning aside 17 out of the 19 shots on goal the Lightning sent his way, good for a .895 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Lightning on the other end of the ice was also unsurprisingly Andrei Vasilevskiy. Taking the loss, Vasilevskiy made 25 saves on the 27 shots he was tested with by the Panthers, giving him a .926 save percentage.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after the game that "They are at home, it’s Game 1, the crowd is pumped up and had tons of energy. Give them tons of credit, they went to their game plan, and we abandoned ours before it even started. Give our guys credit, they weathered the storm for 12, 13 minutes and then we played. But that’s the problem, 16 teams are in, and 16 teams are out. The margins of error are much smaller now."
Game two of the series is in Sunrise on Tuesday night. Before heading to the other side of the state, the Panthers aim for a 2-0 series lead, while the Lightning try to tie the series and force at least a game 5.
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