There was a point in the second period where the Tampa Bay Lightning had the Florida Panthers on the ropes. They had clawed their way back from a 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Steven Stamkos and Tyler Motte. It seemed that a two-goal lead was imminent. Emil Lilleberg had a clean look on a rebound by Sergei Bobrovsky stopped it. Darren Raddysh put one off of the post shortly after and Brayden Point tipped a shot over the crossbar. For the first time in the series, the swagger was back and Amalie Arena was rocking.
The only problem was that they never found that two-goal lead and it came back to haunt them. Minutes later, they failed to clear a puck after a big block by Anthony Cirelli. Everyone in the building knew what was going to happen and sure enough, Sam Reinhart wristed a shot in to tie the game. Brandon Montour would give the Panthers a lead with three-and-a-half minutes to go in the game and Steven Lorentz scored a key insurance goal early in the third period.
Nick Paul pulled the Lightning back within a goal with five minutes to go in the game, but that would be the closest Tampa Bay would get. Matthew Tkachuk would effectively end the game with an empty-net goal to put the Lightning down three-games-to-none in the series.
The Lightning had their chances with four power plays, but couldn’t convert (although Anthony Cirelli had a goal taken off the board after an offside review on one of their advantages). The offense was more prolific as they launched 64 shots with 29 of them reaching the goaltender. Florida did block 20 shots, but did limit the Bolts to just 5 high-danger chances.
Defensively, poor clearing attempts ended up in the back of their net, an issue that has been around since October. Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 26 of 30, was strong, but probably would love to have a couple of the goals back. At the other end, Sergei Bobrovsky was busier than he had been all series long, stopping 26 of 29 to pick up his third straight victory.
The two teams will meet at Amalie on Saturday at 5:00 pm for Game Four. It’s officially win or go home time for the Lightning.
[Game Center] [Natural Stat Trick] [Lines] [Event Summary]
Matthew Tkachuk [2] (Anton Lundell [2], Carter Verhaeghe [2]) 1-0 Florida
Steven Stamkos [3] (Victor Hedman [3], Nikita Kucherov [3]) 1-1
Tyler Motte [1] (Tanner Jeannot [1]) 2-1 Tampa Bay
Sam Reinhart [2] (Vladimir Tarasenko [1], Brandon Montour [1]) 2-2
Brandon Montour [1] (Steven Lorentz [1], Kyle Okposo [1]) 3-2 Florida
Steven Lorentz [1] (Nick Cousins [1], Gustav Forsling [2]) 4-2 Florida
Nick Paul [1] (Anthony Duclair [2], Erik Cernak [1]) 4-3 Florida
Matthew Tkachuk [3] (Carter Verhaeghe [3], Gustav Forsling [3]) Empty Net, 5-3 Florida
