The Florida Panthers were in firm control of their Round 1 series against the Tampa Bay Lightning heading into Game 3 last night. But they now smell blood in the water after securing a 5-3 win to take a commanding 3-0 series lead on a Lightning team that looks outmatched against a deeper Panthers squad.
Panthers Have That Killer Instinct
The opening five minutes or so of yesterday’s game belonged to the Panthers, but it didn’t take long for the Lightning to grab some momentum, thanks to the Panthers parading to the sin bin. The Lightning had three power plays in the first period, a perfect opportunity to go up early and take advantage in a must-have game.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, the Panthers were having none of it. The Lightning had the league’s top-ranked power play during the regular season, but you wouldn’t have known it last night. They looked disjointed and had trouble getting set up against the Panthers’ penalty kill, who were forcing turnovers and clearing the puck before the Lightning could do anything with it.
Related: Panthers Take Commanding Lead With Game 3 Victory Over the Lightning
After the Panthers killed the Lightning’s first two power plays, the Matthew Tkachuk, Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe line, which has been a problem for the Lightning since head coach Paul Maurice put them together after Sam Bennett’s injury, scored to put the Cats up 1-0.
Any momentum the Lightning had from those first two power plays, even though they didn’t score on either, evaporated. However, they came out firing to start the second period and scored two quick goals to go up 2-1 on the Panthers. The Lightning began to tilt the ice in their favor after those two goals and ended up controlling just over 77 percent of the expected goals (xG%) at five-on-five in the middle frame.
But just like the Panthers had done earlier in the game, and really for most of this series, they found a way to turn the tides and kill the Lightning’s momentum. Going completely against the run of play, Sam Reinhart fired a wicked wrister past Andrei Vasilevskiy to knot things up at 2-2.
Even watching the game on TV, you could feel the air come out of the arena and the Lightning. From there, the Panthers took control and scored two unanswered to go up 4-2 before the Lightning got one back late in the third period. The Panthers were Eastern Conference champs for a reason a season ago, so we know they have that killer instinct. And it appears…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Hockey Writers…