George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers hoped to even their playoff series with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, get a win in Game 2 and move on up the road.
Now, the Panthers will be heading to Tampa just hoping to survive and get another home game.
After losing 3-1 on Tuesday night, the possibility exists this may have been the Panthers final home game of the season.
The Panthers are now down 2-0 in the best-of-7 series with the defending Stanley Cup champions ready to rock on home ice.
”We know we have to win four games, no matter how,” captain Sasha Barkov said. “There are four games we have to win and that’s our mindset right now. Anything that happens, happens. We have to learn from that and move forward. …
“We have to win one game, go to Tampa and we have a good chance to win the next game. We just have to play smarter than this. We had good periods, good shifts. We need to stick with that, make it a 60 minute effort from everyone and we’ll be fine. We just have to win the first game.”
Said Joel Quenneville: “It’s the old story; you have to earn your breaks. I think fortunate or not, the effort is there. We just need more guys playing whether they’re comfortable or uncomfortable. We can be a little better and more effective across the board.”
Tampa Bay hasn’t played a home playoff game since it dropped Game 2 in 2019 to Sergei Bobrovsky and the Columbus Blue Jackets; the Lightning did not get another home game that year. It won the Cup last year after a postseason run in Toronto that ended in Edmonton.
On Tuesday night, the Panthers and Lightning minded their manners (for the most part) compared to recent games as the game was tight throughout.
Tampa Bay benefited from a goal off a Florida defenseman and took the first multi-goal lead of this (relatively) young series.
Yet, the Lightning — a team with the reputation for running-and-gunning — did what it did best in the its run to the Cup last summer.
Tampa Bay ground the Panthers down.
And now, the Lightning can finish them off on home ice.
The Panthers are looking for the comebacks of comebacks.
”We are a confident group,” Barkov said. “We have great players in that room, everyone is prepared to work hard. We just have to be smarter on the ice against that team, be prepared for anything. We know how to win these games.”
FIRST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Having Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores narrate the pregame video was probably about the best thing to happen to the Panthers in the opening period. That and Martin Flores’ rendition of the anthem.
Both strong.
The Panthers? Meh.
Actually, the Panthers played a pretty solid opening 20 with Driedger not getting as much help as he gave them.
Tampa Bay got on the board first at 4:52 when Anton Stralman (a surprise seventh d-man addition to the lineup) dropped to block a pass from Steven Stamkos to Nikita Kucherov at the cage.
Stralman was a little too close to the flame.
The puck never reached Kucherov and Stralman probably got credit for a blocked shot. Little consolation since it bounded past Driedger. 1-0.
Florida missed numerous scoring chances including a wide open look from Anthony Duclair, who was deployed with the fourth line zoom squad.
The Lightning then made it 2-0 when Brayden Point did his best dipsy-do as he walked around MacKenzie Weegar and put one off the cage.
No Florida player was there to clean up the bounce and Ondrej Palat went top shelf and it was 2-0 at 14:57 of the period.
Driedger ended the first with 13 saves as the Lightning took aim 21 times.
The two teams were running at the start, but once Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead, the Lightning clamped down.
”We had good shifts in the first but we were down two goals,” barkov said. “We either fell asleep or made mistakes in the zone and it basically cost us the game because we couldn’t score more than one. We have been doing good things on the ice. We just have to put it all together.”
Said Quenneville: “They got the lead they were looking for and were a lot more patient after that. There was a lot more structure. But we fought back. I thought the later part of the second, we were in the right spot just couldn’t buy the goal. We need more guys who are at their to get that we’re going to push them to make sure we’re the best we can going forward. You have to improve as the games go along. We have to expect more.”
The Lightning were also credited with 18 hits (14 for the Panthers) as neither team was whistled for a penalty in the opening period.
There were chances to call them, the refs just didn’t do it.
SECOND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
The refs found their whistles early in the second with Weegar getting called for delay of game 31 seconds into the period.
Florida looked much better on the kill than it did on Sunday night, clogging up passing lanes and keeping the Lightning’s big hitters bottled up.
The Panthers were down 2-0 into the second half of the period with Flores (the coach, not the singer) firing up the crowd by waving his towel while scowling and flexing.
It seemed to work — even if a good number of players on the Panthers root for the Patriots.
Mason Marchment, a surprise addition to the top line, made that move look golden as he popped in a nice end board feed from Carter Verhaeghe to make it 2-1 with 5:39 left in the period.
The two teams had, for the most part, been on their best behavior but that all changed when Radko Gudas dropped Brayden Point at center ice. Moments later, David Savard leveled Ryan Lomberg — and the bad blood was back.
Weegar got hit with a roughing call at the end of the second putting Florida on the kill for the second time with Pat Maroon taunting the Panthers bench — and Lomberg — by doing the “chicken” as Florida players headed to the room.
THIRD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
The Lightning started the third on a power play chance but Kucherov got called for tripping and that was that.
Florida looked to tie things up on its first power play chance of the third, only with Maroon in the box for tripping, the Panthers only got a few pucks through.
Tampa Bay bottled up the middle of the ice, keeping the shots Florida did get off from the side.
Vasilevskiy, through the first 18 minutes of the period, was never really threatened until the final minutes when Florida added an attacker.
Still, that allowed Yanni Gourde to throw one into an empty net with 1:25 left to wrap things up.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Driedger, making his first playoff start on his 27th birthday, was solid. All he gave up was the own-goal on Stralman and Palat’s post-rebound in the first. Driedger had 25 saves before vacating the net late in the third.
It would not be surprising at all to see Driedger back in net on Tuesday night.
”Driedgs always gives us a chance to win,” Barkov said. “We couldn’t win it for him.”
Actually the surprise would be if Driedger was not starting Game 3.
“We’re not going to dwell on this game,” Driedger said. “We’re going to go into Tampa ready to win. We have confidence in our group. We’re looking forward to getting back into the W column.”
Quenneville said the Panthers just need to go home, come back on Wednesday with a “fresh attitude and appetite” then jump the plane for a short flight to Tampa with the idea they’re going to win this thing.
The Panthers, as everyone would have expected, said all the right things about coming back. Weegar said Florida is going to Hillsborough County to “xxxx.”
Quenneville, of all people, knows this is not going to come easy.
”We have had success there,” Quenneville said. “They play the right way from start to finish … let’s win a period and start from there. Hey, let’s go. Let’s get momentum as early as we can.”
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay
2. Ondrej Palat, Tampa Bay
3. Mason Marchment, Florida