Florida is who some feared they are, a sleeping playoff monster awaiting the playoffs to defend their Championship Title. The majority of analysts picked the Lightning to win the series in as few as five games or as many as seven, and the Cats proved them all wrong once again. The Panthers broke open games 1 & 5 and fought hard to win tightly contested games 2 & 4. The only game they dropped was game 3 on home ice, and it was a rough first game back for Aaron Ekblad after his 20-game suspension. Florida’s relentless defense and roster depth led them to victory and on to the second round. HC Paul Maurice is now third in playoff wins in the first three years with a team at eight series wins. This edition of the Sunshine State Showdown was both extremely close and not close at all.
Game 1:
The Panthers, in many people’s opinions, limped into the playoffs, opting to spend the last three weeks or so of the regular season resting players and not icing a full lineup. Game 1 featured the return of Matthew Tkachuk and plenty of buzz around how he’d look in the lineup. Turns out the entire team was ready to go as they dropped six goals on Tampa in Game 1, featuring two goals from Tkachuk, one from Bennett, a Reinhart goal, and two goals from Nate Schmidt. Both Tkachuk goals came on the power play, as did one Schmidt goal, as the PP went 3/3 on the night. Tkachuk also had an assist on the Schmidt power-play goal for a three-point night. After allowing a power play goal for Tampa, the Cats’ PK killed off the other two man advantages. It wasn’t the most SOG-heavy night for Florida with just 16, the first time they’d been held below 20 all year, but they were efficient. The Panthers set the tone with 18 blocked shots, 48 hits, and a 34-26 advantage in the faceoff dot. If you didn’t know that Florida was missing a defenseman, you wouldn’t have thought that they were. It was a great win to open the series and make a big statement to everyone that the Cup Champs were back and better than ever.
Game 2:
If Game 1 was all offense, Game 2 was a war of attrition. Nate Schmidt again scored just over 4 minutes into the first period and the Panthers protected that one-goal lead until Bennett scored the empty net goal in the final four seconds. Defensive excellence was the name of the game for Florida but the real story that came out of this one was the hit that Hagel threw on Barkov midway through the third period. This game overall had more penalties, scrums, and fighting than Game 1 had, but the hit on Barkov really set off the Panthers. Penalties in the second period went to Guentzel (slashing, roughing), Verhaeghe (boarding), Cirelli (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), Marchand (roughing), and Tkachuk (unsportsmanlike conduct). The Verhaeghe board set Tampa off that period, and the physicality ramped up from there, eventually leading to the hit on Barkov. Third-period penalties went to Kulikov (slashing), Samoskevich (roughing), Hagel (maj. interference), Lundell (roughing), and Point (roughing). Following the conclusion of the game, Hagel was given a one-game suspension. But the Panthers aren’t one to let go and forget, and they’d spend the next game waiting for Hagel to return for Game 4. Florida walked out of Amalie Arena with a 2-0 shutout win and a 2-0 series lead.
Game 3:
The return of Ekblad didn’t go as well as hoped, but it’s also not surprising given that he hadn’t played in nearly two months and was thrust headfirst into a playoff series partway through. The Lightning came out in Game 3 playing like they were on the brink of elimination, and the Cats didn’t do a great job of matching their desperation for the majority of the match. The first half of the opening period looked good with Tkachuk scoring the first goal off a feed from Bennett just 2:43 into the game. The Lightning answered back with five unanswered goals from Point, Paul, Guentzel, Glendening, and Cirelli. Unlike the first two games, Tampa did a much better job of blocking shots, going from 6 in Game 2 to 23 in Game 3. Neither team did a good job of staying out of the box, with nine total power plays but no goals for either side. Florida penalties went to Marchand (cross-checking), Samoskevich (tripping), Tkachuk (unsportsmanlike conduct, maj. interference), Rodrigues (roughing), Luostarinen (tripping), and Mikkola (misconduct). Lightning penalties went to Kucherov (roughing), Cirelli (cross-checking, roughing, misconduct), Geekie (roughing), and Paul (holding). Matthew took a run at Guentzel after Guentzel had gotten rid of the puck, which resulted in the major interference call. It wasn’t deemed as egregious as the Hagel hit on Barkov, and there was no supplementary discipline given out after the game. But it did make it back-to-back games with controversial hits, something that would continue into Game 4.
Game 4:
Florida found their game again in Game 4 as they once again broke the ice first with a Lundell goal nearly halfway into the first period. With Hagel back in the lineup, Ekblad was the one who delivered a bad elbowing hit that knocked Hagel out of the rest of the game. No penalty was called which pissed off Jon Cooper and gave the Lightning a boost that they used to score two goals in 11 seconds to take the 1-2 lead out of the first period. They held the lead all the way to the third. Mikkola was assessed a major boarding penalty and a game misconduct early in the final period. The Cats’ PK stepped up and killed off all five minutes of it and gave some momentum back to the team. It looked like Ekblad had tied the game, but it was called back for offside. Aaron scored again, and this time it counted to tie the game 2-2. 11 seconds later, Jones scored to give Florida the lead, and an empty net goal from Verhaeghe secured the win for a 3-1 series lead going into Game 5. Following this game, Ekblad was given a two-game suspension, and Mikkola was fined $5,000.
Game 5:
Down a defenseman once again, the Panthers returned to their Game 1 & 2 d-core pairings. A chaotic opening period had things tied 2-2, with the Florida goals coming from Verhaeghe and Lundell, while the Lightning goals came from Goncalves and Paul. A shot from Forsling got tipped in by Barkov less than a minute into the second period for the 3-2 lead. A slashing penalty to Bennett led to the Guentzel power play goal and the 3-3 tie. The bright side is that that was just the second PP goal the Panthers had given up in the whole series. A second slashing penalty to Bennett put Tampa back on the man advantage, but this time the Cats killed it off. And on top of that, Bennett scored straight out of the penalty box for the 4-3 lead that Florida would take into the second intermission. Nearly lost in the chaos of the period were two massive saves by Bobrovsky early in the period that were game-savers. Florida locked it down defensively in the third, and Luostarinen scored a backbreaker to make it 5-3 with roughly 7 minutes on the clock. The goal was his fourth point of the night to go with three assists and set a franchise record for most points scored in an away playoff game; Verhaeghe still owns the franchise record for most points in a single playoff game at 5 points. Reinhart put the puck into the empty net for the eventual 6-3 win to send Tampa Bay packing for the second straight year.
My Takeaways:
Florida’s a better team than they were last year, and last year they were pretty darn good. The Panthers got great depth scoring, especially great performances from their third line, which was the best line in Game 5, and shut down the best goal-scoring team during the regular season. The Cats were excellent defensively, going 16/18 on the PK and holding Kucherov goalless for the second straight postseason. They actually did a better job containing him as last series, he had seven assists, and this series he only had 4. Florida’s third line is going to be a huge problem moving forward, as the chemistry that Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand has developed looks amazing; they combined for two goals and 8 points in Game 5. Verhaeghe could be heating up; he scored two goals in two games to end the series. The defense chipped in quite a bit to help, scoring five goals in three games, with Schmidt being especially effective in Games 1 & 2. Florida’s shutdown defense is going to cause problems for top-heavy teams in the playoffs, just like it did last season. The reigning Cup Champs are 12 wins away from repeating and looking every inch the Stanley Cup Champions that they are. Next up is a round 2 date with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who closed out their series in six games Thursday night.
ITR 39: Conference Finals – Inside The Rink
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