The Tampa Bay Lightning got the start they wanted. They finally found success on the power play. They received secondary scoring. All key elements that they hoped for in the series, but in the end it wasn’t enough. They came back from a one-goal deficit twice, but Sam Bennett’s goal late in the second period gave the Florida Panthers the lead they wouldn’t surrender as they won 6-3 to eliminate the Lightning from the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
Gage Goncalves, Nick Paul, and Jake Guentzel scored for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 30 shots in the loss. Eetu Luostarinen had a four-point night including a goal while Sergei Bobrovsky posted 26 saves on the night.
It wasn’t a pretty first period for the Lightning as their defense, at times, seemed to be constructed with balsa wood and scotch tape, but they battled through it. It helped that they had the early lead, and that it came from a secondary source. With the top line bottled up all series by the Panthers defense, someone else had to come through tonight.
That someone, at least in the first period, was The Portuguese Pistol, Gage Goncalves. The Lightning rookie took advantage of a bouncing puck to record his first career playoff goal. It was basic hockey as Victor Hedman threw it on net, and it hit Luke Glendening’s stick. With Bobrovsky sold out on the initial shot, Goncalves had time to flip it into the net for the early lead.
Gage Goncalves (Luke Glendening, Victor Hedman) 1-0 Lightning
A lead that lasted all of three minutes. On their first power play of the night, the Panthers scored on a bit of a similar play. A shot from the point hit something in front and came to Carter Verhaeghe. He had time to spin and beat Vasilevskiy, who had lunged for the initial shot.
Carter Verhaeghe (Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart) Power Play, 1-1
The Lightning haven’t played with the lead a lot this series. In fact, they’ve spent most of it trailing, so maybe they’re more comfortable playing from behind. The Panthers were happy to oblige as they took advantage of some scrambling coverage. Erik Cernak was caught out high on an entry, and couldn’t shut off Brad Marchand along the boards. The former Bruin slid it to the crease where Anton Lundell had his skate at the right angle to deflect it past Vasilevskiy.
Anthon Lundell (Brad Marchand, Eetu Luostarinen) 2-1 Florida
It felt like things were spiraling out of control, but a nice play by a rookie got the Lightning back into the game. After being a scratch for Game 4, Conor Geekie was flying early on in Game 5. He had a big hit on Dmitry Kulikov early in the period, and then had a nice entry with about 8 minutes to play in the period. He hit the trailer with a pass, but the shot went wide.
It looked like the Lundell was going to skate the puck out, but Geekie knocked it off of his stick and the puck came to Nick Paul. Paul spun and fired, clicking it off the bar and in to tie the game.
Nick Paul (Conor Geekie) 2-2
The Lightning almost immediately went back on the penalty kill, and while they were successful, it was a chaotic kill with Florida spending the first 90 seconds of it hammering pucks at the net. Andrei Vasilevskiy had his best save of the period as he snapped his right leg to the post to deny a rebound attempt.
Tampa Bay survived it, and had a chance of their own on the power play. While it was their 15th straight power play without a goal, they were able to move the puck a little bit better than we’ve seen over the last few games, and forced Bobrovsky to make a couple of saves.
With the score back to level, the Lightning wanted to start the period like they did the first. They did not get what they want. The Florida forecheck did what it’s done over the last two playoffs and caused a turnover. The puck came back to Gustav Forsling, and his shot was tipped in front by Aleksander Barkov to give the Panthers their second lead of the night.
Aleksander Barkov (Gustav Forsling, Eetu Luostarinen) 3-2 Panthers
For one of the few games in the series, the Lightning had room in the neutral zone to bring the puck through. The Florida defense wasn’t as tight to the puck as they had been in the past and there were some openings. Unfortunately, the Lightning haven’t been able to take advantage to this point. Anthony Cirelli found himself all alone in front of the net, but Bobrovsky was able to squeeze his arm to his body to keep the puck from leaking through.
The Florida netminder had his best sequence a few minutes later. Erik Cernak knifed through the crease and seemed to have the far post labeled, but Bobrovskiy got his pad on it. The puck bounced to Goncalves, but his shot at a mostly open net caught just enough of the bottom of the glove to stay out.
Sam Bennett is a pest on the ice, and that can occasionally lead to penalties, much like when he slashed Hedman’s stick out of his hands. The Lightning were back on the power play. For the first time in a week, it resembled the power play we have grown to like very much, like a favorite aunt or uncle.
Who else, but Jake Guentzel? His shot from inside the circle beat Bobrovsky and the game was tied at three goals a piece.
Jake Guentzel (Victor Hedman) Power Play, 3-3
Five minutes later, Bennett broke another one of Hedman’s stick and found himself back in the penalty box. The Lightning weren’t able to make it two successful power plays in a row, and, to add salt to the wound, they failed to track Bennett coming out of the box. Lundell slow–played his rush out of the zone perfectly to catch Bennett in-stride. Bennett made the perfect shot on the rush to beat Vasilevskiy just inside the far post.
Sam Bennett (Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen) 4-3 Panthers
The goal took a little wind out of the Lightning’s sails as Florida found their defensive form over the last five minutes or so of the period. The second frame ended with a group hug at center ice and roughing penalties for Guentzel and Evan Rodrigues.
The Lightning needed the best period of the season to pull off the comeback. They got…a good period. If nothing else, the final period was a microcosm of the entire series. The Lightning came close a few times, but never seemed to really threaten Bobrovsky (outside of a rare chance from in close by Kucherov that Bob literally nodded aside). Meanwhile, the Panthers were composed and patient.
Aside from an early shot off of the post by Bennett and a breakaway by Lundell that Vasy gloved, the Lightning spent much of the time in the Panthers’ zone flinging pucks wide of the net. Florida eventually caught them in transition and Eetu Luostarinen capped off his four-point night by finishing off a two-on-one with Brad Marchand.
Eetu Luostarinen (Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell) 5-3 Panthers
Coach Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy with just under five minutes to go, but there would be no miracle comeback. Sam Reinhart floated a shot from the neutral zone into the vacated net to make it 6-3 and send the fans to the exits.
Florida advances to the second round to take on the winner of the Toronto/Ottawa series while the Lightning head to the off-season with plenty of questions to answer before the puck drops again next October.
