In the first round battle between teams in the state of Florida, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning will play Game 3 on Thursday. This is a best of 7 series, and the winner will head to the second round of the postseason. Florida has won the first two games at home, and now the series moves to Tampa.
The Florida Panthers went 52-24-6 during the regular season, and took down the Atlantic Divisional title. Florida won their final four games of the regular season. On Tuesday, they beat the Lightning in overtime 3-2.
For Tampa Bay, after a long history of being in the postseason, it was a stretch to get in this season. Tampa finished 7th in the Eastern Conference with their 45-29-8 record. The Lightning won their final game of the regular season, but have dropped both postseason games so far.
In this game, the Tampa Bay Lightning at -110, the Florida Panthers are -110 and the total is set at 6.5 goals.
Panthers Win in Overtime
The Florida Panthers jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in Game 2. The Lightning bounced back to tie the game, and send it to overtime. In overtime was where Carter Verhaeghe scored his second goal of the postseason to win the game. Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko scored the other goals for the Panthers.
Sergi Borovsky was sharp for Florida. He turned away 21 shots in the game. In the game one win, he recorded 17 saves, and allowed just two goals there as well. During the regular season, he went 36-17-5 and allowed just 2.37 goals per game.
The Panthers are looking to get Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk going in this series. Reinhart led the team with 94 points on the season, including 57 goals. Tkachuk was an assist guy all season, as he had the team high with 62.
Lightning Looking to Find Magic
The Tampa Bay Lightning have scored two goals in each of the first two postseason games. Tampa needs to change that to get back in this series. During the regular season, the Lightning scored 3.51 goals per game. That was the fifth most in all of the National Hockey League.
In the Game two loss, the Lightning saw goals in the second period from Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos. Those are the two dudes in the Tampa offense. In Game one, Stamkos and Brandon Hagel scored goals.
Andrei Vasilevskiy has been in between the pipes both games so far for Tampa. Each game he has allowed 3 goals. The third goal in Game 1 was via an empty net in the third period. On the season, he was 30-20-2 with a 2.90 goals against average.
Tampa Tops Florida
The Tampa Bay Lightning have to win this game, or this could be a sweep. The Lightning, despite not being nearly as good as they have been in previous cup seasons, are still prideful.
The Lightning are not going to go down without a fact. In fact, they win this game, and keep their hopes alive. We are taking the Tampa Bay Lightning -110 over the Florida Panthers in this affair on Thursday!
