Panthers cant complete sweep, Tampa Bay downs Cats 6-3
Rough night for the Panthers as they lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3.
The game started out like all of the other games went this series very slow and very choppy, but about 17:00 minutes Tampa Bay had a break away goal but Matthew Tkachuk ended up getting a penalty for tripping before it was a one-on-one with Bobrovsky, the Panthers ended up killing the power play.
However, the Panthers got back into some trouble about the twelve minute mark the Tampa Bay Lightning went back on the power play, with Dmitry Kulikov getting called for high sticking, they eventually ended up scoring on the power play to make the game 1-0, and the Panthers fount themselves in a hole early. That was the first time the Tampa Bay Lightning scored on their power play this series.
The Panthers offensively was absolute point blank terrible, when the Panthers went on their first power play at nine minutes, the Panthers could not get nothing going and actually gave up a goal on their own power play, it was a really rough start for the Panthers. Tampa Bay was up 2-0 early.
Tampa Bay would not stop there, they kept coming after the Panthers and making them force turnovers, and eventually the Panthers would find themselves down 3-0 about five minutes into the first period. The momentum was all on Tampa Bay’s side.
At the end of the first period the Panthers only had five shots on goal compared to Tampa Bay’s twelve shots on goal, if you was watching the other games that the Panthers won, the roles was usually reversed with the Panthers starting out hot.
The Lightning clearly wanted it more today, and it showed big time.
During the second period the Cats were really looking for anything, Matthew Tkachuk found Carter Verhaeghe at the side of the net from below the goal line, and Verhaeghe snuck the puck between Bollts goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and the post to get the Cats on the board 4:17 into the period.
Later in the period, Hagel wired a wrist shot that beat goalie Sergei Bobrovsky over the glove to restore Tampa’s three-goal lead.
This time it would only last about 90 seconds thanks to a Sam Reinhart backhand off his own rebound that went in the net moments after a Panthers power play expired.
A tight third period began to open up after Stamkos’ second goal of the game gave Tampa a 5-3 lead with 10:26 to go.
Nick Paul of the Lightning scored a power play goal with Tampa on a two-man advantage in the final minutes.
On to Game 5, Monday in Sunrise.
Trinton is the owner of CanesToday. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, he is a freshman in high school and wants to graduate from the University of Miami
