Panthers secure home ice in first round of playoffs
SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup playoff run will begin in Sunrise.
Goaltender Chris Driedger’s third shutout plus goals from MacKenzie Weegar, Juho Lammikko, Carter Verhaeghe and Alex Wennberg earned the Panthers a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in their regular-season finale on Monday night at BB&T Center.
The victory in front of the limited-capacity sellout crowd of 5,040 secured home-ice advantage for the Panthers when the two teams reunite for their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
“It’s a fresh start. It’s a whole new ballgame,” said Panthers coach Joel Quenneville, a threetime champion leading the Chicago Blackhawks, of his postseason perspective as he looks to win one in South Florida. “We should be excited about how the season went for us in a lot of ways. I thought we got a lot of guys included in our team game, got some depth over the course of the season. But this is what we play for, and this is what we shoot for in our careers. … We know we’ve got our hands full with our opponent.”
The Panthers finished the regular season on a six-game winning streak and a record of 37-14-5, posting 79 points in the standings. It’s good for second in the Central Division, behind the top-seeded Carolina Hurricanes and four ahead of the No. 3 Lightning (36-17-3).
Heading into the postseason with back-to-back victories against the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida won the regular-season series over Tampa Bay, 5-2-1.
The in-state rivals now are set to meet in their first playoff pairing after 146 all-time regular-season meetings. It will be the Panthers’ seventh playoff appearance — sixth in the traditional 16-team setting after playing the unique-to-2020 qualifying round last year, where the team was eliminated by the New York Islanders. The Lightning, meanwhile — with two Stanley Cup titles (2020, 2004) — make their 13th postseason appearance.
It has not yet been announced when the series will begin. Last month, the NHL extended the regular season to May 19 for this year’s all-Canadian North Division after COVID-19 outbreaks caused games to be rescheduled, but unaffected teams may begin postseason play before that date.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com on Monday that Saturday is a possible postseason start date, which NBC later confirmed with its announcement that the Washington Capitals-Boston Bruins matchup will kick off the network’s postseason television coverage on Saturday night.
“We’ll try to keep practices crisp, short and on-point,” said Quenneville of handling the layoff, “and let’s make sure we’re ready to go.”
Driedger, in his first action since an April 26 loss at the Nashville Predators, saved all 30 Lightning shots on goal.
“The guys played fantastic defensively tonight,” said Driedger, who earlier Monday was selected as the Panthers’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy commemorating perseverance and sportsmanship. “I felt good receiving the puck. A couple of breakaways that I felt solid on. … A couple of fortunate bounces there in the third. I think [the Lightning] hit two posts.”
Added Quenneville on Driedger: “Coming off a layoff like that, having a game like that is outstanding.”
The Panthers struck first with a Weegar first-period goal where he came in as a trailer for a wrist shot off assists from Mason Marchment and Lammikko. Weegar, the defenseman, sparked the goal in transition by stripping the Lightning of the puck on their initial attack.
Florida took a 2-0 lead on a shorthanded goal in the second period by Lammikko, who wrapped the puck around the Lightning goal after Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy went out of the net to play it and gave it away.
“The whole team played a very good game, and it was easy to jump in today,” said Lammikko, who has been in and out of the lineup and notched two points.
Verhaeghe, back from a 13-game absence due to an upper-body injury, scored off assists from Anthony Duclair and Aleksander Barkov early in the third period to put the Lightning away. Alex Wennberg, after a hat trick on Saturday, then tipped in a Radko Gudas shot with 5:33 remaining.
Tampa Bay’s Vasilevskiy, the Vezina Trophy favorite, had 26 saves on 30 Florida shots on goal. Four of the nine times Vasilevskiy has given up four or more goals this season were against the Panthers.
The Lightning were 0 for 5 on power-play chances, as were the Panthers.
After Saturday night’s meeting between the teams turned into a melee, the lone significant skirmish Monday came with 6:18 left in the second period when Panthers defenseman Kevin Connauton landed haymaker after haymaker on Tampa’s Daniel Walcott, who was making his NHL debut.
Star Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau was a late scratch on Monday due to illness, according to Quenneville.
While Verhaeghe was back, fellow forward Patric Hornqvist remained out for a seventh consecutive game to finish the regular season.
Center Sam Bennett and defenseman Brandon Montour missed the finale as Quenneville labeled them day-to-day following Monday’s morning skate.
Hornqvist has practiced over the past week, and Quenneville previously said he would be playing were the final two games playoff matchups.
The Lightning also played with a slew of players out due to injury, in addition to Pat Maroon, who was suspended one game for unsportsmanlike conduct for roughing Montour in Saturday’s penultimate regular-season game.
Ondrej Palat, Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman were all out. Barclay Goodrow was announced as out indefinitely with an upperbody injury on Sunday. The Lightning have also been without star forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos — Kucherov all season and Stamkos since early April. Both could return for the playoffs.