Panthers moving on, eliminating Tampa with 6-1 victory in Game 5
Florida has advanced past the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive season
The Florida Panthers are moving on to round two.
Florida defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup Quarterfinal series on Monday, winning the best-of-7 series in five games.
They will now face the winner of the series between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Panthers killed off a pair of Tampa Bay power plays in the game’s first 11 minutes, allowing the Bolts zero shots.
It wasn’t the way Florida wanted to play Game 5 – the goal was to keep things at five-on-five as much as possible – but they’d take it.
Tampa thought they opened the scoring on a goal by Anthony Cirelli, but after a Panthers challenge, the tally was called off due to goaltender interference by Anthony Duclair on Sergei Bobrovsky.
Instead, it was Florida that picked up the game’s first goal, and it came during the first minute of the second period.
Carter Verhaeghe fired a long wrist shot on Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and the rebound shot right back toward him into the high slot.
Verhaeghe pounced on the rebound and quickly sent another shot toward the goal, beating Vasilevskiy and putting the Cats up 1-0.
Their lead would get doubled just past the midway point of the period when Sasha Barkov scored a shorthanded goal directly off a faceoff in the Tampa zone, but the two-goal advantage wouldn’t last long.
Moments after that same Lightning power play expired, Brandon Hagel got the puck to Victor Hedman inside the blueline with tons of space and time. He walked down to the top of the circle and blasted a slapshot past Bobrovsky’s glove to get the Bolts on the board.
For a second time in Game 5, a Tampa Bay goal would be disallowed. This time it was Cirelli bumping Bobrovsky as a Mikhail Sergachev shot went in.
Officials immediately waved off the score for goalie interference, but Tampa Head Coach Jon Cooper decided to challenge anyway. The ruling was eventually confirmed, and Florida was given a power play.
Florida put the clamps down when the final period began, focusing on defending and limiting any opportunities for the Lightning.
Eventually, the Cats were able to cash in and extend their lead, and it was the captain that got the job done.
Barkov finished off a nice shift with Verhaeghe and Tkachuk, poking the rebound of a shot by Verhaeghe past Vasilevskiy and skating off for a supercharged (by Barkov standards) celebration.
The goal gave Florida a 3-1 lead with 8:54 to go.
Just over three minutes later, an Evan Rodrigues one-timer gave the Panthers a three-goal lead.
An empty-net goal by Verhaeghe with 3:57 on the clock all but ended the game and the series, but Niko Mikkola added an empty-netter of his own for good measure with 70 seconds to go.
On to the second round.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Game 5 against Tampa:
Florida held Tampa to an 0-for-3 night on the power play.
Verhaeghe has at least a point in every playoff game the Panthers have played this season.
The same can be said for Tkachuk, who has three goals and nine points during the postseason so far.
Barkov had gone three games without a point before scoring a pair in Game 5.
Florida has now advanced past the first round of the playoffs in three straight seasons.
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