Eventually, a home team will win a game in this series, right?
The Florida Panthers had a chance to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their opening round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise, but it was the Bolts who got the best of their hosts.
Tampa’s 5-1 victory got them on the board in the series, which Florida now leads 2-1 heading into Game 4 on Monday night.
Despite the loss, there is still an opportunity for the Panthers to take control of the series if they can earn a split of their two home games.
There are a few things the Cats will need to address if they want to see a better result than they did in Game 3.
Let’s get to the takeaways.
COULDN’T BUILD ON FAST START
The Panthers were all over Tampa Bay in the early stages of Game 3.
A goal by Matthew Tkachuk and a healthy shot and possession advantage had the Cats and their fans feeling good about Game 3.
Then Brayden Point scored late in the first period, and things gradually began going better and better for the Lightning.
“We just went flat for a while,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I liked our start, at 1-1 straight through to 2-1, misconnections on a bunch of stuff, not that far off it, but the energy was there, the drive, we tried to make some plays that didn’t go for us, but even with that, there’s nothing going on in really the game, it was just a quiet block of the game. They got a couple of knucklers on you and you’re down 3-1 and chasing it a little bit.”
PUCK MOVEMENT WAS LACKING
One area of their game that Florida is generally quite sharp is when it comes to taking care of the puck.
The Panthers have always been very mindful of how they move around the ice with the puck, making smart plays and limiting opposing transition opportunities.
Whether it was something Tampa was doing differently or just an off night for the home team, Florida had a hard time making some plays that they generally making, particularly in the offensive zone.
“I thought we stopped moving the puck as well as we can in close proximity to some things that didn’t get connected,” said Maurice. “That’s not a hands thing, for me, that’s more of an emotional thing. You start looking for something a little better, and it slowed our game. I thought how we moved the puck slowed our game down.”
“THIS WAS GOING TO BE A GRINDER”
During the first two games in Tampa, the hockey gods were smiling on the Panthers.
The majority of the bounces went Florida’s way, particularly around the net, which helped fuel their two series-opening wins.
Things changed significantly on Saturday, as Tampa picked up a couple goals on funky plays that swung the momentum in their favor and kept them ahead of the game for much of the night.
They also get spectacular goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with 33 saves, including an eye-popping 14 high danger stops.
“I don’t think we were great,” Maurice said. “I think offensively we probably generated more tonight than we did and any of the other games, at 5-on-5 from an even strength perspective. We’ve got lots of room to get better, I’m sure they do too, 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.”
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