Florida Panthers Rout Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 By Sticking to Their Identity

The Florida Panthers blitzed the Tampa Bay Lightning by sticking to their identity and grinding away for goals near the front of the net.

TAMPA — In 2022, the Florida Panthers only managed to score three goals in their entire four-game series loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the playoffs.

The Panthers doubled that total in Game 1 of their first-round series against Tampa Bay three years alter, defeating the Lightning 6-2 to kick off their Stanley Cup title defense.

While Florida put together one of the highest-scoring offenses in the modern era that season — their 4.11 goals-for per game was the most since the 2004 lockout — that potency did not hold up in the playoffs. And Tuesday’s playoff opener was another example of how far the Panthers have come as a playoff team.

They mucked and grinded their way to goals by getting bodies in front of the net, getting deflections, grinding out rebounds and taking Andrei Vasilevskiy’s eyes away with screens.

“He’s been one of the best goalies in the world ever since he came into the league, so you’re not going to be able to beat him with a clean shot that many times,” captain Aleksander Barkov said.

“So, you’re going to have to create stuff in front of him and get guys to the net, battle for rebounds and all of that stuff. And that goes for all the good goalies and all the good teams. It’s not easy to get there, but you have to. Especially in the playoffs. It’s hard, but you have to find your ay to get in fornt of the net, battle for those pucks and get in front of him, so that’s our job every single game we play and it doesn’t change this year.”

In that second-round series in 2022, Vasilevskiy had one of the most dominant playoff series in NHL history. He only allowed three goals on 154 shots in the four-game series, totaling for a historic .981 save percentage. He completed the sweep with a 49-save shutout where he swallowed up a barrage of shots form the perimeter.

The Panthers put six goals by him on 17 shots in a game that did not have a whole lot of danger on it on either end. They made do with two deflections, a mucky rebound and two shots through traffic to send Vasilevskiy home with a .647 save percentage.

“There wasn’t a lot of offense in that game,” coach Paul Maurice said. “If you sat out both teams’ special teams, it was an offensive grind — a little bit of a stalemate — so, it’s going to be proven play goals, pucks batted out of the air, pucks jammed in backdoor. There will be a small number of high-end chances.

“If we play the game the way we like to play it, we still do have to play some offense to play a little defensively, which will hopefully limit the other team as well. So, there won’t be a lot of high danger and there won’t be a high volume if it’s going right for us, so you’ve got to make the most of your chances.

That they did.

Sam Bennett got the scoring started by deflecting home a saucer pass from Mackie Samoskevich 3:44 into the game. After Jake Guentzel tied it midway through the first period, Sam Reinhart gave the Panthers the lead back with a deflection of a Dmitry Kulikov shot with 45 seconds to go in the opening frame.

Nate Schmidt extended that lead to two goals 4:41 into the second period, jamming home a rebound with Eetu Luostarinen tied up near the front of the net. Tampa Bay challenged the play for goaltender interference and Matthew Tkachuk scored 15 seconds later on the ensuing power play after he was left all alone in the slot.

Tkachuk struck again 9:44 into the second period, slipping a wide-angle shot through traffic past Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the night. Brayden Point made it a three-goal game again with a one-timer with 6:56 to go in the second period, but it was one of only a few slip-ups the Panthers had the rest of the way.

Nate Schmidt restored the four-goal lead with a shot through traffic on the power play and Sergei Bobrovksy stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced to help the Panthers take a 1-0 series lead.

“This is a battle of some great teams and some of the best goalies in the world on both sides,” Tkachuk said. “I think [Vasilevskiy] is so talented, so you have to be in front of him, you have to put a lot of shots on, you have to be around it, rebounds, tips, all of that fun stuff. So, I thought guys did a good job of that.”