Lightning strike thrice: Eye sweep
Defending 2-time Cup champs grab 3-0 series lead
TAMPA — There’s no number on the stat sheet that quantifies killing an opponent’s confidence, but the Lightning put a Panthers team with the best record in the regular season on the brink of elimination Sunday afternoon by taking away its will to win.
Tampa Bay’s 5-1 victory over Florida means the Lightning can advance to the Eastern Conference Final for a third straight season and the sixth time in nine seasons with one more win after taking a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Panthers. Game 4 is Monday night at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning, who have won five straight games since they were on the brink of elimination while trailing Toronto 3-2 in the first round, have never lost a playoff series when leading 3-0. They are 4-0 in such situations.
“We’ve won a couple games and we’re still alive in the series but the series isn’t over,” coach Jon Cooper said. “Until you start checking off that fourth win, there’s nothing to hang our hat on. We’re inching our way closer but it is far from over.”
The Lightning have put themselves in great position by playing exemplary defense. In this series, they have held a team that led the NHL with 4.1 goals a game to three total.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 34 saves on 35 shots Sunday, has been fantastic, as have the skaters playing defense in front of him.
It’s not pretty, but it’s Stanley Cup-winning hockey.
On Sunday afternoon, the Lightning took control of a one-goal
game on the penalty kill — an area they have dominated over their run to back-to-back Cups.
“You could hear the crowd get into it after a big kill,” captain
Steven Stamkos said. “We get into
it just as much on the bench. So it’s a huge part of our team’s success.”
Less than two minutes back into even-strength hockey, the Lightning took a 3-1 lead on Stamkos’ goal with 9:37 left in the second period and never looked back.
This postseason, the Lightning have neutralized two of the league’s top power-play units — Toronto was No. 1 in the NHL and Florida ranked fifth — posting an 86.9-percent success rate that is a marked improvement over their 11th-ranked 80.6-percent regular-season mark.
The Lightning left the door open for a frustrated Panthers team, allowing a first-period power-play goal after Brandon Hagel was whistled for cross-checking. Sam Reinhart’s goal ended Florida’s 0-for-25 powerplay drought in the playoffs and seemingly gave a sleeping giant confidence.
Erik Cernak’s goal 2:54 into the second period took some air out of the Panthers, but Florida had another big opportunity when Victor Hedman went to the box for an interference penalty 6:37 into the period.
But the Lightning formed a wall in front. In a two-minute power play that was contested almost entirely in the Lightning zone, Tampa Bay blocked four shots in the first minute of the man advantage all while forward Nick Paul was playing without a stick. Vasilevskiy denied shots in close and out, and Ryan McDonagh flicked a puck away that was skipping toward an open net and blocked another shot right after the power play expired.
Paul’s stick broke shortly after the Lightning lost the defensive-zone faceoff to begin the power play. But with the Lightning bench on the other side of the red line, he couldn’t retrieve another, so he skated up top defending without a stick, blocking one shot from the point.
McDonagh then blocked one shot, and Cernak blocked two from the perimeter before Florida got the puck in front of the net. Vasilevskiy stopped two shots in close by Patric Hornqvist and another slapshot from the slot by Sasha Barkov. Near the end of the power play, Reinhart’s one-timer from the slot was stopped but skipped over to the near post where McDonagh swept it away from the front of the net.
“Huge swing there,” McDonagh said. “And I think our group on the PK as a whole wants to thrive on being difference-makers. We give up one early, but we don’t let it affect us and change our attitude and in the end it was big killed there in the second.”
Soon, the Lightning were skating the other way. Hedman sprung Nikita Kucherov on a seam pass through the neutral zone. Kucherov scooted behind the rush and fed Stamkos for a one-timer at the left circle that beat Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for a 3-1 Tampa Bay lead.
Stamkos said that penalty kill definitely gave the Lightning a boost in a critical time.
“It feeds the energy on the bench,” Stamkos said. “It is really is inspiring. You watch those guys; they’re battling, they’re blocking shots, doing whatever it takes. Those aren’t easy minutes in a game. You see guys coming back to the bench just gassed, gasping for breath, and then they’ve got to go right back out there. But that’s just this group. Whatever guys are on the ice, we have full trust in.”
Kucherov and Stamkos both had empty-netters in the third period to close out scoring.
“They’re Stanley Cup champions and the best team in hockey probably over the last five years, so they know what they’re doing and they’re willing themselves,” Florida interim head coach Andrew Burnette said. “They have more will and more desire than we do, and it shows probably if you watch the game shift after shift right now.”