Jon Cooper took the words right out of my mouth: “They have an exceptional team. Not just an average team, an exceptional team.” Down a defenseman in Aaron Ekblad, who got a two-game suspension for his hit on Hagel in Game 4, Florida was back to its Game 1 & 2 defensive pairings. The Panthers put their foot on the gas and didn’t relent. The first 40 minutes were rather chaotic with multiple lead changes and ties before Florida took the lead late in the second period and then scored two insurance goals in the third to seal the win and take the series 4-1 for the second straight year over the Lightning. Florida’s third line was outrageous and the best line on the ice for either team. The Cats’ lockdown defense defended the lead, and the scoring came throughout the lineup while the relentless pressure led the Panthers to victory. Florida awaits its opponent as the Toronto/Ottawa series hasn’t finished as of Wednesday night.
Third Line Feasted:
HC Paul Maurice was looking for one goal per series from his third line, and he got more than that out of them in Game 5. The third line accounted for two of the six goals and eight points combined. Eetu Luostarinen had a career game with four points off a goal and three assists and set a franchise record for most points scored in a road playoff game. He had 12:43 5v5 minutes, and goals were 4-0, with high danger chances also being 4-0 advantage for the Panthers. Eetu had secondary assists on Lundell’s goal, Barkov’s goal, and Bennett’s goal. His pass to Forsling on the Barkov goal was a fantastic setup that led to Barkov tipping in Forsling’s shot. Luostarinen earned 1st Star honors. Marchand had an impressive game himself, scoring two points on the night for primary assists on the Lundell and Luostarinen goals. It seemed like Marchand was all over the ice for the entire game and made some incredible plays even when he didn’t score himself or the passes didn’t quite connect. Adding his veteran presence to the third line has opened up the offense for Lundell and Luostarinen, and their chemistry as a line has only gotten better over the course of the series. Brad earned 2nd honors. Lundell scored off a redirection where the puck hit his skate and bounced in off the feed from Marchand. He had a three-point night with a goal and two assists. Anton was also best in the faceoff dot with a 56.3 FO%, going 9 for 7. With Florida still limiting Tkachuk’s minutes, having the third line that can step up and play second-line minutes is huge for the Cats.
Elite Defense:
I said it last season, and I’ll say it again now: defense wins championships. Florida’s relentless defensive pressure gave minimal time and space for the Lightning’s biggest playmakers. For the second straight postseason, the Cats held Kucherov goalless, although he had three assists in the series. The Panthers kept Kucherov off the scoresheet for three of the five games and only lost one game where he scored points. A chaotic first period made it look like it was going to be a shootout of a game with four goals in the opening twenty minutes for a 2-2 tie heading into the first intermission. Things were still unpredictable in the second period as the Panthers took an early 3-2 lead, only for Tampa to tie it back up at the halfway point. Bennett gave Florida the lead late in the period, and then they rode that 4-3 lead to the second intermission. The third period was all defense from the Panthers. Florida was keeping the puck out of their end as much as possible and running short shifts to keep players fresh. Early period icings kept some players on for too long before the Cats could finally get a change. The first ten minutes of the final period, it didn’t look like Florida was interested in generating any offense; it was all relentless defensive pressure. They kept the Lightning to the outside and worked hard to clear the front of the net so Bobrovsky could see shots coming his way. Bobrovsky made two massive saves early in the second period that robbed two Tampa Bay chances of goals, arguably his two biggest saves of the series. On those saves HC Paul Maurice said, “If that happened in the last two minutes, we’d be talking about how he saved the game.” The PK was big again as well, although they did allow a PP goal in this one. On the series, the Panthers’ PK went 16/18 and shut down one of the best power plays in the NHL. Despite giving up the most shots to Tampa in a single game during the series, Florida’s defense kept the Lightning to the walls and had great positioning to block shots, break up passes, or strip the puck away. Although there were a couple of bad turnovers, one of which led to the game-tying goal in the first period, after that, they settled things down and locked it in in the third period.
Depth Scoring:
It’s always important to have depth scoring in the playoffs, and the Cats got that from three of their four lines in Game 5. Carter Verhaeghe scored his second goal in two games, this time on a goalie. Tampa broke the ice early off a goal that had a fortuitous bounce and landed on Goncalves’ stick with a wide-open net for him to shoot at. Lilleberg was called for slashing, and Verhaeghe scored off Tkachuk’s shot that rebounded toward him in at the net front to tie the game 1-1; Reinhart had the secondary assist. Marchand drove to the net and made a pass to Lundell that bounced off his skate and in for the 2-1 lead just over halfway into the opening period; Luostarinen with the secondary assist. A good stick check from Geekie forced a turnover that landed on Paul’s stick, and he tied the game 2-2 to end the first period. Luostarinen was down near the end boards in the Tampa zone and made a fantastic pass back to Forsling. Forsling took a shot that Barkov then tipped in for the 3-2 lead under a minute into the second period. Bennett was called for slashing, leading to the Lightning power play goal scored by Guentzel, whose shot went in just over Bob’s shoulder for the 3-3 tie. A second slashing call on Bennett led to a big kill from the Cats and eventually a Bennett goal as he scored right out of the box for the 4-3 lead late in the second. Tampa pressured in the final period, but the Panthers defense held them at bay. Marchand set up the Luostarinen insurance goal on a cross-ice pass that found its way past two Tampa Bay sticks, and Luostarinen tapped it in back door for the 5-3 lead with just under seven minutes to go. The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy with roughly 4:50 on the clock to play, and Reinhart put the game away with an empty net goal and a 6-3 final score for the win. Everyone on the top line scored, a goal from the second line, and two goals from the third line. Overall, a great effort from the team to generate offense for the forwards in Game 5. Now they await their opponent.
ITR 39: Conference Finals – Inside The Rink
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