Home teams continue to dominate

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Here’s a sentence that has never been said: Florida leads Tampa Bay in a playoff series.

And for the Panthers, that’s a great way to start.

Carter Verhaeghe tapped in a pinpoint pass from Aleksander Barkov for the lead 58 seconds into the third period, Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and an assist and the Panthers beat the Lightning 3-2 in Game 1 of their NHL playoff series Sunday.

Barkov had two assists, Sam Reinhart also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 17 saves for the Panthers, who won a Ganmed1 on home ice for the first time since 1997.

“Game 1 was great,” Tkachuk said, “especially being on the winning side.”

Brandon Hagel and Steven Stamkos got the goals for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 stops for the Lightning, who pulled him for an extra attacker with 3:08 remaining. Tkachuk got an empty-netter 63 seconds later, and Florida soon began celebrating a 1-0 series lead.

Stamkos scored with 9.3 seconds left for the Lightning, but Florida controlled the ensuing face-off and time expired.

Verhaeghe’s goal came on the power play, one that carried over from late in the second period. Barkov held the puck on the right wing, then sent a diagonal pass through the slot to a hard-charging Verhaeghe — who was behind everyone else and simply touched the puck into an open net.

“I didn’t even see the pass,” Verhaeghe said. “Just hit my stick. That’s how well Barky can pass the puck.”

It’s the third time the Sunshine State rivals have met in the playoffs — both of the first two having gone Tampa Bay’s way, and basically in one-sided fashion. The Lightning won 4-2 on their way to their second straight Stanley Cup in 2021, then swept Florida 4-0 in 2022 and outscored the Panthers 13-3 in that series.

That ouster brought changes to Florida, which hired Paul Maurice to implement a new style geared toward winning in the playoffs without sacrificing offense. The Panthers rode that to the Stanley Cup final last year, to the Atlantic Division title this year — and it was enough in Game 1.

“We have history between these two teams,” Barkov said. “Last two times, it didn’t work out well for us but we want to change it now. I think we have a great opportunity here and today was unreal. It’s been a great atmosphere here all season, but man, we missed the playoffs. We missed this atmosphere.”

Florida took the game’s first eight shots, keeping Tampa Bay from getting anything to Bobrovsky until 15:55 had elapsed in the opening period. And then it was the Lightning who clamped down — holding Florida to only six shots in the next 25 minutes, no small feat against the team that has gotten, by far, the most shots on net in the NHL over the last four seasons. N.Y. RANGERS 4, WASHINGTON 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Vesey had a goal and an assist, Artemi Panarin also scored, and the New York Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Sunday in

Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Matt Rempe and Chris Kreider also scored, Barclay Goodrow had two assists and Igor Shesterkin finished with 20 saves to help the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers get the postseason off to strong start.

The Rangers, seeking their first Stanley Cup championship in 30 years, won their third straight and 11th in the last 14 games. New York’s Peter Laviolette became the first coach in NHL history to take six different teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Martin Fehervary scored and Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 shots for the Capitals, who had won three straight and four of their last five games to earn the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night.

With the Rangers up 3-1, Vesey had a great chance to add to the lead in the opening minute of the third period. However, Lindgren stopped his initial attempt in close and the rebound deflected off Vesey and went wide with Tom Wilson knocking it away.

Kaapo Kakko had a shot go off the goalpost about six minutes into the period.

Kreider made it 4-1 as he put a backhander past Lindgren on a breakaway from the right side with 3:43 left. It was his 41st postseason goal, extending his franchise record.

The Rangers bottled up Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, who had no shots on goal. He was held without a shot only five times in 79 games during the season.