George Richards, FHN Publisher
TAMPA — The Florida Panthers had reason to be feeling good about themselves after the first period of Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
They may have been absolutely sick to their stomachs after the second.
Tampa Bay put on a show worthy of a defending champion as it put up five in the second period to erase a 2-0 deficit. The Panthers, now down two, did not walk away from the fight.
Thanks to goals from Patric Hornqvist and Gus Forsling, the Panthers tied the score and forced overtime.
That allowed the hero of the night to be: Ryan Lomberg?
Yeah, Lomberg.
The Panthers fourth liner who has ticked off the Lightning throughout the early goings of this series jumped on a loose puck in the neutral zone and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy 5:56 into overtime to give the Panthers a rousing 6-5 victory.
”Great shot by Lombo,” Joel Quenneville said. “A lot of times in overtime, it’s the guys least expected to score come up large and the enthusiasm after that goal, after that win, is as high as I have ever seen.”
By virtue of Florida’s come-from-behind win, the Panthers will play host to Game 5 on Monday night as Tampa Bay now leads the best-of-7 series 2-1.
The second period was a disaster for Chris Driedger, who got the start for the second consecutive night, gave up five goals off 12 shots in the second period and was pulled.
Sergei Bobrovsky, the winning goalie for Columbus the last time Tampa Bay hosted a playoff game in 2019, came in and made stops on the six shots he faced in the third and three in OT. They were big saves though.
Lomberg’s goal came less than a minute — and I am not making this up — the Lightning played the Columbus Blue Jackets’ goal song.
No lie.
Bobrovsky said he didn’t hear it, but smiled when told.
”I don’t think about stats like that, I’m just trying to be ready one shot at a time,” said Bobrovsky, who has been the winning goalie in the last three playoff games played at Amalie Arena. “I’m in the moment. It’s the next one.’’
FIRST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Aside from captain Sasha Barkov leaving the game for a while, the Panthers could not have asked for a better opening period.
The Panthers took a 2-0 lead into the first break after Tampa Bay put on the early pressure.
Florida stood up to the early charge from the Lightning with Driedger making two big saves.
Aside from the goals, the Panthers were very crisp defensively and kept the Lightning from getting into the high danger areas.
Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Lightning only had one such chance in the opening 20. Give MacKenzie Weegar and Gus Forsling — who were split up as defensive partners — credit for some nice stick work in front of Driedger.
That kind of play between the circles had not been there, for the most part, in the first two games.
As far as the offense goes, the Panthers gave Driedger a little something to work with.
Bennett showed exactly what the Panthers were missing early on as Jonathan Huberdeau stretched a pass as he saw Bennett crashing the net. Andrei Vasilevskiy was watching Huberdeau, didn’t see Bennett and it was 1-0 at 4:31.
Less than three minutes later, Florida took its first multi-goal lead of the series when Radko Gudas threw up a shot toward the net that was blocked; he was moving up in the play, the puck ended up coming right back at him and he put it past Vasilevskiy.
Florida outshot the Lightning 12-10 and really took over possession from about the midway point of the period.
That made life on Driedger a little easier as well.
SECOND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Driedger’s life in this game took a turn and it did not take long.
Tampa Bay opened the floodgates 1:57 in when Victor Hedman fired a shot Driedger could not handle. The puck popped out of his glove and Anthony Cirelli popped it into the net 1:57 into the period.
Just over three minutes later, Ross Colton tied the score although it appeared Yanni Gourde, camped out at the cage, deflected the shot past Driedger.
Then it was Steven Stamkos driving in and scoring off a Ryan McDonagh pass at 8:38 to give the Lightning its first lead of the night.
Alex Wennberg tied the score on Florida’s power play chance at 12:34, but Tampa Bay just kept on going as it scored twice (Brayden Point, Alex Killorn) on late power play opportunities and the Panthers went into the break appearing to be spinning out of control.
”It was not the second period we were looking for,” Lomberg said. “We know how good of a team we are and there was no quit, not even for a split second. Proud of the guys. Put this one behind us, move to the next one.”
THIRD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Bobrovsky came out and ended up making six saves as he wasn’t challenged much although there was a little action as the period rolled along.
Ondrej Palat boarded Mason Marchment in what appeared to be a retaliation for a hit Marchment put on him. Regardless, the Panthers had a power play 51 seconds in, down two.
They needed it.
The Panthers put out five forwards — with Keith Yandle scratched, Weegar got some time up on the top unit — and cashed in when Huberdeau’s shot clipped Patric Hornqvist’s skate and went in.
Florida had some life down a goal and Bobrovsky, the guy who got the win for Columbus in the previous playoff game here in 2019, looked sharp from the get.
With 3:07 remaining, Forsling wound up from the top of the left circle and deposited an Alex Wennberg feed through Vasilevskiy’s pads. Florida had tied it.
A late penalty on Anthony Duclair for cross-checking put the Panthers back on the kill to start the overtime session. Florida would kill it off.
”We know their power play has been really good, especially this series,” Huberdeau said. “They have good players. The mindset was, kill this penalty and we’re going to go win this game.”
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Ryan Lomberg, Florida
2. Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida
3. Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay