Panthers score twice in third period to beat Lightning 3-2 in Game 1 of NHL playoffs – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Here’s a sentence that’s 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 defeated 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 Game 1 on home ice for the first time since 1997.

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

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

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

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

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

This is the third time the Sunshine State rivals have met in the playoffs; the first two have both gone the way of Tampa Bay, and actually in a one-sided way. The Lightning went 4-2 en route to their second straight Stanley Cup in 2021, then defeated Florida 4-0 in 2022 and outscored the Panthers 13-3 in that series.

That ouster brought changes at Florida, which hired Paul Maurice to implement a new style focused on winning the playoffs without sacrificing offense. It took the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final last year and the Atlantic Division title this year – and it was enough in Game 1.

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

Florida took the game’s first eight shots, preventing Tampa Bay from getting Bobrovsky anything until 3:55 had passed in the opening period. And then it was the Lightning who controlled the ball and held Florida to just six shots over the next 25 minutes, no small feat against the team that has had by far the most shots on net in the NHL over the past four seasons.

Shots after two periods: Florida 14, Tampa Bay 10. It tied the second-fewest number of shots the Panthers had in 40 minutes this season, and the third-fewest the Lightning had added in a third period.

“That was a pretty exciting game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And in the end, a power play goal made the difference.”

Reinhart scored on a tip-in 6:13 into the game, and Hagel made a rebound from the slot at 16:04 of the first. It remained that way until Verhaeghe skated unnoticed to the left side of the crease and tapped in Barkov’s pass for the 2-1 lead.

“It came down to not making the power play to start the third,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “That was the difference today.”

NEXT ONE

Game 2 is Tuesday in Sunrise.

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