TAMPA – We’re heading back to Sunrise.
Missing out on a chance to sweep their cross-state rival, the Florida Panthers suffered a 6-3 loss in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
“We all know it’s a battle,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “It’s best-of-seven. Now we’re up 3-1 going home. We’re in a good spot.”
Still leading 3-1 in the series, the Panthers will host the Lightning for Game 5 on Monday.
“We did what we needed to do at home,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “We won the first two games. Then we did what we needed to do on the road. We split. You’re up three and you want to win that fourth one, but they’ve got a pretty good team over there.”
Before the puck even dropped, the Lightning got a boost when defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who’d been out since fracturing the tibia and fibula in his left leg on Feb. 7, was cleared to return to action and rejoined the team’s blueline on the second pairing.
With the Panthers on the penalty kill for the second time in the first period, Steven Stamkos buried a one-time from the bottom of the left circle to put the Lightning up 1-0 at 8:54. The main source of offense for Tampa Bay in the series, Stamkos has scored in all four games.
On the penalty kill, the Lightning doubled their lead to 2-0 soon after that when Brandon Hagel beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a snipe from the slot for a shorthanded goal at 12:09.
After a befuddling roughing penalty against Barkov led to some 4-on-4 hockey, the Lightning took advantage of the gift the officials handed them by extending their lead to 3-0 when Brayden Point tucked home a wrap-around goal at 15:07.
“We weren’t very good,” Maurice said of the start. “We were a little bit slow and then had a little problem with special teams stuff tonight. That’s a recipe for a tough one.”
Getting one back for the Panthers in the second period, Carter Verhaeghe, the franchise’s all-time leader in playoff goals, took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk from behind the net and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a one-timer from the doorstep to cut the deficit to 3-1 at 4:17.