Florida leads the best-of-7 opening round series against Tampa Bay 2-0
The scene of the opening round playoff series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning is shifting to the state's west coast.
Florida picked up a pair of victories in Game 1 and Game 2 on home ice and will now take their 2-0 series lead to Tampa.
It's been a very physical series to this point, as both teams have found pockets of the games in which they've been able to dictate the pace.
The Panthers can expect to face Tampa's best effort, as falling behind 3-0 in a playoff series is nearly impossible to come back from.
One thing the Lightning will likely try to improve on is their offensive pressure.
While both teams saw an increase in scoring chances from Game 1 to Game 2, Florida has been able to hold the Bolts to just 42 total shots on goal in the two games.
If not for the brilliance Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has come up with several show stopping saves, the series might not seem like such a close one.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has also played quite well, allowing only two even strength goals so far during the series.
Florida will have their work cut out for them as the team will have to make up for the loss of center Sam Bennett for at least the next couple games.
Bennett suffered an upper-body injury during Game 2, leaving the game after taking a Brandon Montour slapshot to his left hand or wrist.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said on Wednesday that the injury was not as bad as initially feared, but that Bennett would be out for at least a week.
Here are Florida's projected lines and pairings for Game 3 against Tampa Bay:
Vladimir Tarasenko – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Evan Rodrigues
Ryan Lomberg – Steven Lorentz – Nick Cousins
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
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