Lightning moves on by beating Panthers
Andrei Vasilevskiy wrapped up a series with a Game 6 shutout for the second consecutive time, stopping 29 shots in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 4-0 victory against the visiting Florida Panthers on Wednesday night.
Vasilevskiy also shut out the Dallas Stars last year to win the Stanley Cup.
The Lightning advanced to face the Carolina-Nashville winner in the second round. Tampa Bay advanced to the second round for the fifth time in the past seven years.
The Panthers have not won a playoff series since the 1996 Eastern Conference final.
Steven Stamkos scored his third goal of the series and Pat Maroon added his first. Brayden Point added his fourth of the series in the third period and Alex Killorn had an empty-net goal with 1:42 left.
Rookie Spencer Knight, back in net for Florida after his strong playoff debut in Game 5, finished with 20 saves.
The Lightning grabbed the early lead when Tyler Johnson raced past Anton Stralman to negate an icing call, picked up the puck behind the net to feed a backhand pass in front. After the puck initially bounced, Maroon was able to get a whack at in the air to backhand it past Knight at 6:16 of the first period.
The Lightning had to kill off two power play chances in the second period to protect the one- goal lead before Florida’s Sam Bennett took an undisciplined penalty at 12:53.
Bennett, who took a costly penalty in Game 1 that led to the tying goal that resulted in a suspension for Game 2, put Lightning defenseman David Savard in a headlock and then ripped his helmet off. The roughing penalty led to Tampa Bay’s second powerplay chance of the game and second goal.
Point put it away at 14:36 of the third, dancing around MacKenzie Weegar down low and drawing Knight to the ice before tucking the puck around the goaltenders left pad.
Notes
Turner Sports reached a multi- year agreement with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to be a studio analyst when its coverage of the NHL begins in October. Turner also has finalized Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk as its top announcing team.
• Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said any racist comments directed to First Nation defenseman Ethan Bear are “totally unacceptable” and “disgusting.” Bear’s girlfriend posted on social media that the defenseman “received numerous racist messages and comments” in the aftermath of the Oilers’ four-game series loss to Winnipeg.