George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers played one of their most complete periods of these playoffs Saturday in Game 4 yet went into the room down two to the host Tampa Bay Lightning.
As good as Florida’s work in the offensive zone was in the first, it was loose play in the defensive one which were the difference.
Tampa Bay took that lead, built on it, and was never really challenged after that opening 20. The Lightning shut things down for a 6-2 win and a commanding lead in this series.
The Panthers head home for Game 5 on Monday night but are on the brink of elimination down 3-1 in the best-of-7 series.
Game 5 is set for Monday at 8.
The Panthers are now in a must-win situation.
Well, if they want to keep playing, that is.
To win this series and move on to the second round, the Panthers will have to beat the defending Stanley Cup champions in three consecutive games. One more loss for Florida and that’s it.
”When you get behind in the playoffs, you need a short memory,” Anton Stralman said. “You put this game behind you and go on to the next one. This series is not over. We’re excited about coming home and trying to play our best game.”
Florida’s problems started early.
After Jonathan Huberdeau went to the penalty box after going at it with Yanni Gourde (while Blake Coleman got some shots in from the bench) for a 4-on-4 play.
The Panthers got caught on a line change when Sasha Barkov went to the bench and no one joined the rush, Florida coughed up the puck in the neutral zone and Anthony Cirelli walked in on Sergei Bobrovsky and made it 1-0 at the three-minute mark.
It was one of three goals allowed by Bobrovsky in the first and the only one — he had any sort of a chance on.
Tampa Bay got its next goal when Gourde got in position on the side of the net in front to Markus Nutivaara and deflected a long shot from Nikita Kucherov at 7:24.
Huberdeau cut the deficit in half by following up a Sam Bennett rebound on a power play chance at 8:49, but the Lightning got it’s two-goal lead back when Ondrej Palat deflected Erik Cernak’s shot.
“We played in their zone, we got chances in their zone, but they scored the goals. They found way to score goals. We have to find a way to eliminate those.”
Florida needed a fast start in the second and did not get it.
Far from it.
Alex Killorn took advantage of Anthony Duclair’s holding penalty and scored on a nice pass from Kucherov as he got behind MacKenzie Weegar and was all alone in front of the net.
Bobrovsky’s day came to an early end as Joel Quenneville pulled the plug at 7:15 of the second when Killorn got his second on a nice pass from Steven Stamkos as he slid through the slot to make it 5-1.
That came on Tampa’s 14th shot of the day and it was time for Chris Driedger.
”The fourth goal, there was no one there and we were late on coverage and they seem to exploit that,” Quenneville said. “You have to be perfect killing penalties, but those empty-net tap-ins from the right side … that’s our fault.”
The Panthers did not give up their push in the second despite being down by their biggest deficit since the Lightning beat Bobrovsky 6-1 in the second meeting of the season back on Feb. 13.
There was plenty of fighting after the second Killorn goal.
Pat Maroon potentially getting a look from NHL Player Safety after he boarded Frank Vatrano; a scrum later broke out after Vatrano was cross-checked into Vasilevskiy from Mikhail Sergachev.
Florida got a slimmer of life late in the second when Carter Verhaghe worked the puck through the slot on a power play chance, backhanding the puck top shelf with 1:15 left in the period.
Near the end of the second, Kucherov was called for goalie interference after a helmet-on-helmet collision with Driedger.
Kucherov was pushed into the Florida netminder by Weegar, but took a goalie interference call giving the Panthers another power play chance.
The Panthers desperately needed to get a goal in the 90-seconds of power play time they had to start the third but they didn’t get it.
Kucherov, who left the game in pain after being slashed by Duclair, added to the Panthers problems when he got another power play goal with 15:13 remaining and a four-goal mountain against Vasilevskiy (39 saves) is simply too high to climb.
Florida even pulled Driedger (11 saves) on a power play chance and ran out six forwards on a power play. No dice.
Now the Panthers come home trying to extend, and save, their season.
”You can say this or that, but the outcome wasn’t what we wanted,” Quenneville said. “We had the perfect start and then started chasing the game. We did a lot of good things, we had the puck, we had possession. The picture is going home and taking one game Monday. Nothing more than that. Get some excitement out of that.”
GOALIE IN GAME 5?
As for who would start Game 5, Quenneville predictably, did not say. The Panthers are planning a rare off-day practice Sunday and more should be known then.
Florida could return to Bobrovsky or Driedger but could also throw rookie Spencer Knight out there. Knight has been working as the No. 3 goalie with the game group lately but obviously has not played in an NHL postseason game before.
“We’ll talk about it,’’ Quenneville said. “We’re talking about practice tomorrow, we’ll reconvene and look at options.”
FIGHT NIGHT, AGAIN
The two teams mixed it up throughout the series but things amped up in the third period.
A number of players were tossed — Hornqvist, Maroon, Lomberg, Luke Schenn — in the final minutes of the third.
Two weeks ago, the Panthers and Lightning combined for 154 penalty minutes.
On Saturday, they combined for 54.
The Hornqvist situation came to a head when he hit Sergachev on what appeared to be a clean hit. Sergachev was off balance, however, and hit his head into the boards and did not return either.
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Alex Killorn, Tampa Bay
2. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay
3. Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay