The Panthers were held to just one goal for the third consecutive game of the series. The Cats have scored only one goal in four of their last seven playoff contests. Florida compiled one goal or less in three regular season games during the 2021-22 regular season.
Tampa Bay got out to a 1-0 lead with 6:39 remining in the first period. Nikita Kucherov tapped the puck from the left point. Ryan McDonagh fired a one-time slap shot from the top of the zone and it was deflected in by Corey Perry from the top of the crease past Sergei Bobrovsky. It was Perry's third tally of the series, fifth goal of the 2022 playoffs and 50th career playoff goal.
Florida finally scored on the power play with 3:53 left in the first. The Cats entered this contest 0-for-25 with the man advantage in their first eight games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Aleksander Barkov connected a pass from the top of the zone to Jonathan Huberdeau. He backhanded it to the middle and Sam Reinhart snapped a shot from the slot area by Andrei Vasilevskiy for his third goal in the postseason.
The Lightning reclaimed the lead 2-1 at the 2:54 mark of the second period. Ondrej Palat sent a cross-ice pass from the right wing that grazed off the stick of Ross Colton. Erik Cernak released a wrist shot from the inner left circle for his first tally of playoffs.
It became 3-1 for the Bolts with 9:37 left in the second. Victor Hedman made a diagonal lead pass from his own blue line. Kucherov fed the puck from above the right circle and Steven Stamkos powered a one-time slap shot from the left-circle dot for his third goal of the postseason.
The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky from goal twice for an extra attacker in the final five minutes of regulation. It did not work as Kucherov skated in by himself into the Cats zone and put the puck into the empty net for his fourth playoff goal with 3:54 left. Stamkos added an empty-net tally with 2:09 remaining for his second goal of the game and fourth goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to make it 5-1.
No comments:
Post a Comment