On Tuesday, the Florida Panthers won in overtime on their home ice. Now it’s up to the Tampa Bay Lightning to match it.
The best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series will shift to Tampa for Game 3 on Thursday night, with the Atlantic Division champions leading 2-0. In the third period, tied 2-2, the Lightning’s NHL-best power play unit got a four-minute opportunity after Eetu Luostarinen committed a double-minor for high-sticking, but the visitors only had two shots on Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Actually, the finest scoring opportunity came when Florida’s Aaron Ekblad went on a short-handed breakaway, but goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped him.
Earlier, Bobrovsky dove across the crease with his back to the action and blindly used his elbow to block Mathew Dumba’s shot into an open net, denying the game-winning goal with less than six minutes remaining in the second. “You’re looking at two of the best,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the goaltenders. “To sit here and be on the biggest stage in the greatest league in the world, you kind of marvel at some of the saves that were made.”Bob persevered with the (Dumba) save.
It’s probably more on us than him, but he deserves credit. I think the two most important saves were the ones Vasi made following that one, which could have sunk us.
Bobrovsky added, “It was just a desperation save.” Florida lost second-line centre Sam Bennett to an upper-body injury in the second period, forcing coach Paul Maurice to switch Anton Lundell between Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk beat defenseman Emil Lilleberg for a puck at the half-boards and delivered it to Lundell, giving the Panthers a 3-2 overtime victory.
The centre then fed Verhaeghe, who entered from the left side. He sped by Vasilevskiy, set up a backhander, and hit the game-winner from a sharp angle. It was the Panthers’ 11th consecutive OT victory in the playoffs, the second-longest streak in NHL history, with eight occurring since the 2023 postseason. The Lightning have lost ten of their last eleven overtime playoff games.
Meanwhile, Verhaeghe’s fifth overtime playoff win in 47 games ties him with Patrick Kane, Corey Perry, and Glenn Anderson for third all-time. Only Joe Sakic and Maurice Richard have more, with eight and six, respectively. “Someone’s got to make a play,” Verhaeghe remarked. “Chucky made an awesome play, Lundy made an awesome play and I just finished it.” The winger’s propensity for playoff drama is rising.
Verhaeghe, a Stanley Cup winner with the Lightning in 2020, helped Florida defeat the Washington Capitals in Game 6 of the 2022 series with an overtime goal. Last season, in overtime, he defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 7 in Beantown. Afterward, Ekblad remarked that Verhaeghe’s OT game-winners are the product of good genetics. “He’s got the clutch gene,” the defenceman explained. “He was born with it, guy. You say that, but it takes many years of hard labour. It’s not surprising at all. Maurice said Wednesday that Bennett, who had a goal and an assist the night before, would be gone for “at least a week.”
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