SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning found little space for offensive creativity in their 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday.
For the first 16 minutes of the game, Tampa Bay struggled to fight off Florida’s aggressive forecheck and defensive structure. It failed to get pucks in behind the defense and didn’t record a shot on goal until forward Michael Eyssimont tested Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with 4:05 remaining in the first period.
‘We have a couple of things we’ve got to be a little bit better,” Lightning center Anthony Cirelli said. “We’ll watch some video and we'll be better next time.”
Game 2 is at Florida on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; BSSUN, BSFL, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360).
Shortly after the Lightning’s first shot on goal, forward Brandon Hagel tied it 1-1 on a rebound of Cirelli’s shot at 16:04. Both teams played a tight-checking game in the second period, but the Panthers put down the clamps in the third period, scoring in the first minute and then holding Tampa Bay without a shot on goal for more than half the period.
“They are at home, it’s Game 1, the crowd’s pumped up … give them tons of credit -- they went to a game plan and we abandoned ours before it started,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Florida is an exceptional team; they are going to do this. They have done it to teams all year and they are going to do it to us for the rest of the playoffs, so it’s our job to fight through it.”
The Panthers stifled the Lightning’s top forward line of Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Anthony Duclair. Kucherov had an assist was limited to one shot on goal in 19:47 of ice time; Duclair had none in 15:26. They rarely got sustained time in the offensive zone and couldn't create space to get the puck on net consistently.
Tampa Bay did score on a power play, but it came with 10 seconds left in the third when Steven Stamkos beat Bobrovsky with a wrist shot after a pass from Kucherov.
Kucherov, who led the NHL with 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) this season, was hounded by the Panthers and visibly showed his frustration with his inability to create.
But defenseman Victor Hedman said a tight-checking game could benefit the Lightning over a best-of-7 series. They simply have to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented.
“We just have to fine tune some details to our game and get some more shots and more offense,” Hedman said. “We showed in the second period that if we can get pucks deep, we were able to hound them, sustain pressure and get some looks.”
