Sunrise, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning were in an early hole against the Florida Panthers, again.
In the first two games of their first-round playoff series, that spelled disaster for Tampa Bay.
Not this time.
The Lightning turned the deficit into a rout in Game 3, beating the Panthers 5-1 Saturday and tightening the series to 2-1.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was nearly perfect, stopping 33 of 34 shots, and the Lightning got goals from Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point, Nick Paul and Luke Glendening. Anthony Cirelli added an empty-netter with five minutes left, and Nikita Kucherov had three assists.
“To be honest, you would have never known sitting in the locker room after Game 2 that we were down 0-2,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It wasn’t going to guarantee the result, but I knew (darn) well how the effort was going to be.”
The Lightning will try to even things up in Game 4 on Monday at Sunrise. The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, however, are 5-0 after taking a 2-0 lead in a playoff series.
Paul gave the Lightning their first lead of the series when he slipped a shot just inside the pad of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in the second period. Guentzel made it a two-goal lead just 21 seconds into the third before the Lightning pulled away with Glendening and Cirelli’s goals later in the period.
Matthew Tkachuk scored for the Panthers, his third goal of the series. Bobrovsky finished with 17 saves.
“We’ve got lots of room to get better. I’m sure they do, too,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “so I’m not feeling today like there’s an aberration to how I thought this would go. This was going to be a grinder straight through.”
Tkachuk, who scored twice in the opener, got on the board 2:43 into the game when he tapped a feed from Sam Bennett past Vasilevskiy for his 20th playoff goal with the Panthers. The Lightning responded when Guentzel’s shot bounced off Point and past Bobrovsky later in the first to give the NHL’s highest-scoring team in the regular season its first goal in nearly five periods.
Vasilevskiy had given up seven goals in the first two games but was huge on Saturday. He bounced back from Tkachuk’s quick goal and withstood a flurry of Florida shots in the second and third. The Panthers had 71 total shot attempts.
“I think it’s a huge win for our team. It gives us some confidence and some life in the series,” Guentzel said. “To go on the road, sometimes it brings everyone together. … It’s only one game. We’ve got to move on to the next one and be ready to go.”
The Lightning were playing without forward Brandon Hagel, who was suspended for the game after a hard hit on Aleksander Barkov that knocked the Florida captain out of the final 10 minutes of Game 3. Barkov played on Saturday, along with Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who returned from a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
“I feel good. That’s why I was out there,” Barkov said.
Things got more physical as the game went on, and Tkachuk was assessed a five-minute major for a late hit on Guentzel before Tampa’s empty-netter.
When asked his thoughts on Tkachuk’s hit given Hagel’s suspension, Cooper shrugged.
“The only players we hit,” he said, “are the ones with pucks.”
More Saturday games
Vegas 4, (at) Minnesota 3 (OT): Ivan Barbashev scored at 17:26 of overtime and the Golden Knights evened their first-round playoff series.
Nicolas Roy and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and assist, and Shea Theodore also scored for the Pacific Division champion Golden Knights. Adin Hill made 29 saves.
Marco Rossi, Marcus Foligno and Jared Spurgeon scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson made 42 saves, including a pair of sprawling left pad saves of Reilly Smith’s attempts with 3:49 left in regulation.
Game 5 is in Vegas on Tuesday, with Game 6 on Thursday back in Minnesota.
(At) Ottawa 4, Toronto 3 (OT): Defenseman Jake Sanderson scored on a long wrist shot from the left boards at 17:42 of overtime and Ottawa beat Toronto to force a fifth game in the first-round series.
Sanderson kept the puck in at the blue line and fired the wrist shot that sailed through traffic and past goalie Anthony Stolarz into the top, right corner.
The teams needed extra time for the third straight game, with Ottawa finally breaking though after 3-2 overtime losses in Games 2 and 3. Toronto missed a chance for its first sweep since beating Ottawa in the 2001 first round.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Toronto.
(At) Colorado 4, Dallas 0: Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog scored his first NHL goal in nearly three years, Logan O’Connor had a short-handed tally and the Avalanche beat Dallas in Game 4 to even their first-round series.
Nathan MacKinnon added a power-play goal, Samuel Girard also scored and Brock Nelson had two assists for the Avalanche. Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves for his first postseason shutout.
The series moves back to Dallas for Game 5 on Monday.
Team USA 6, Sweden 3
Team USA clinched the top seed in Group B with a 6-3 win over Sweden at the world under-18 hockey championship on Saturday in Frisco, Texas.
The U.S. (3-0) will round out the preliminary round on Monday against Germany (8 p.m., NHL).
University of Michigan recruits Will Horcoff and Drew Shock each had an assist and were plus-2.
Eastern Conference playoff scheduleTampa Bay vs. Florida
(Florida leads 2-1)
▶ Game 1: Florida 6-2
▶ Game 2: Florida 2-0
▶ Game 3: Tampa Bay 5-1
▶ Game 4: Monday, April 28 at Florida, TBA
▶ Game 5: Wednesday at Tampa Bay, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Friday at Florida, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Sunday at Tampa Bay, TBA
Washington vs. Montreal
(Washington leads 2-1)
▶ Game 1: Washington 3-2 (OT)
▶ Game 2: Washington 3-1
▶ Game 3: Monteral 6-3
▶ Game 4: Sunday, April 27 at Montreal, 6:30 p.m.
▶ Game 5: Wednesday at Washington, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Friday, May 2 at Montreal, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Sunday at Washington, TBA
Carolina vs. New Jersey
(Carolina leads 2-1)
▶ Game 1: Carolina 4-1
▶ Game 2: Carolina 3-1
▶ Game 3: New Jersey 3-2 (OT)
▶ Game 4: Sunday, April 27 at New Jersey, 3:30 p.m.
▶ Game 5: x-Tuesday, April 29 at Carolina, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Friday, May 2 at New Jersey, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Sunday, May 4 at Carolina, TBA
Toronto vs. Ottawa
(Toronto leads 3-1)
▶ Game 1: Toronto 6-2
▶ Game 2: Toronto 3-2 (OT)
▶ Game 3: Toronto 3-2 (OT)
▶ Game 4: Ottawa 4-3 (OT)
▶ Game 5: Tuesday, April 29 at Toronto, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Thursday, May 1 at Ottawa, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Saturday, May 3 at Toronto, TBA
Western Conference playoff scheduleDallas vs. Colorado
(Series tied 2-2)
▶ Game 1: Colorado 5-1
▶ Game 2: Dallas 4-3 (OT)
▶ Game 3: Dallas 2-1 (OT)
▶ Game 4: Colorado 4-0
▶ Game 5: Monday, April 28 at Dallas, TBA
▶ Game 6: Thursday, May 1 at Colorado, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Saturday, May 3 at Dallas, TBA
Los Angeles vs. Edmonton
(Los Angeles leads 2-1)
▶ Game 1: Los Angeles 6-5
▶ Game 2: Los Angeles 6-2
▶ Game 3: Edmonton 7-4
▶ Game 4: Sunday, April 27 at Edmonton, 9:30 p.m.
▶ Game 5: x-Tuesday, April 29 at Los Angeles, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Thursday, May 1 at Edmonton, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Saturday, May 3 at Los Angeles, TBA
Vegas vs. Minnesota
(Series tied 2-2)
▶ Game 1: Vegas 4-2
▶ Game 2: Minnesota 5-2
▶ Game 3: Minnesota 5-2
▶ Game 4: Vegas 4-3 (OT)
▶ Game 5: Tuesday, April 29 at Vegas, TBA
▶ Game 6: Thursday, May 1 at Minnesota, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Saturday, May 3 at Vegas, TBA
Winnipeg vs. St. Louis
(Winnipeg leads 2-1)
▶ Game 1: Winnipeg 5-3
▶ Game 2: Winnipeg 2-1
▶ Game 3: St. Louis 7-2
▶ Game 4: Sunday, April 27 at St. Louis, 1 p.m.
▶ Game 5: Wednesday, April 30 at Winnipeg, TBA
▶ Game 6: x-Friday, May 2 at St. Louis, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Sunday, May 4 at Winnipeg, TB
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