Spencer Knight made his postseason debut with the Panthers. He became the youngest goalie in NHL history to ever debut in a playoff elimination game and the second youngest goalie to win in his playoff debut.
Keith Yandle returned to the lineup after missing the last two contests that ended his consecutive game streak of combined regular season and postseason games at 979. It was the second longest in the history of the National Hockey League.
Tampa Bay jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 53 seconds into the first period. Ryan McDonagh made a right outlet pass from his own crease. Blake Coleman brought the puck down the right side from his own zone to the low right circle. He backhanded it to the middle and Ross Colton lifted in a forehand shot from the top of the crease. It was the Bolts first shot on goal in the game as Colton scored his second tally of the series.
Florida evened it up 1-1 at the 6:19 mark of the second period. Sam Bennett won a right-circle faceoff and Jonathan Huberdeau pushed it back. MacKenzie Weegar snapped a shot from the high slot by Andrei Vasilevskiy. Huberdeau became the first Panthers player with nine points in a playoff series.
The Panthers moved ahead 2-1 with 3:05 left in the second. Mason Marchment shoveled the puck from the right wing to Aleksander Barkov behind the cage. He waited on the end wall, backhanded a centering pass and Marchment ripped with a one-time slap shot from the slot area.
In the third period, Florida extended it to a two-goal margin 3-1 on the power play 35 seconds in. Huberdeau placed a diagonal pass from the left wing to the high slot. Barkov one-timed a slap shot and it grazed off the right shoulder of Patric Hornqvist.
The Lightning pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 2:15 to go. It did not work as Frank Vatrano scored from the blue line with 14.6 seconds remaining and a 4-1 lead.
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