Nate Schmidt’s third goal of the series and a 19-save effort from Sergei Bobrovsky carried the Florida Panthers to a gritty 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay LIghtning at Amalie Arena.
Schmidt took a crossing pass from Sam Reinhart following an Aleksander Barkov faceoff win and his screaming one-timer caught Andrei Vasilveskiy moving to his left and beat him against the grain 4:15 into the contest.
The Panthers would nurse that fragile lead for a nerve-wracking 55:41 span of time before Sam Bennett flung the puck past a few outstretched sticks from center ice into the empty net with four seconds left on the clock with lone assist going to Seth Jones to seal the deal.
Florida’s swarming defense and virtually airtight penalty kill did the rest. The Lightning’s vaunted power play was held in check, going 0-for-5 on the night and generating just two shots.
Tampa Bay’s defensive effort was almost as impressive, as they limited the Panthers to 23 shots on goal, most of them of the very routine variety.
The Cats had to play the final 10:09 without Aleksander Barkov, who was obiltarated by Brandon Hagel with the Lightning enjoying a man-advantage. Hagel was assessed a five-minute major for interference, but the Panthers could not convert. Hopefully, Barkov, who woozily left the ice under his own power, will be back for Game 3.
Bobrovsky’s best moments were when he commandingly stood his ground when Brayden Point had a wide-open chance in the slot and then reacted quickly to glove the puck after Mackie Samoskevich misplayed the rebound late in the second period, along with a fine kick save (didn’t catch the shooter on this one) and then a sharp glove snare on J.J. Moser, both in the third.
The series will shift to Sunrise for the next two games, with the hit on Barkov throwing another log on the proverbial fire between two teams that already can’t stand each other.
Nuts & Bolts
- Nate Schmidt became the second defenseman in the NHL’s modern era to notch the game-winner in each of his team’s first two postseason contests, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, who did it for the Detroit Red Wings back in 2007. Schmidt is the sixth defenseman in NHL history to score thrice in the first two games of the playoffs.
- Sergei Bobrovsky earned the First Star nod for posting the fourth postseason shutout of his career. All four have come during his time with Florida. It was the first time the Lightning were blanked at Amalie Arena in the playoffs since May 23, 2018.
- Sam Bennett scored for the second consecutive game and matched Lightning blueliners Erik Cernak and Ryan McDonagh with a game-high four shots on goal.
- Seth Jones logged a game-high 27:31 of ice time and was one of three Florida defenders to finish with a team-high four hits. Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola were the others.
- Sam Reinhart led the forwards with 22:45 TOI and was the only Cat to finish the tilt with a plus-two rating.
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