First round: Lightning-Panthers Game 1 live updates
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Former Lightning forward Carter Verhaeghe’s late first-period goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead over the Lightning in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series Sunday in Sunrise.
Tampa Bay’s Blake Coleman and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov exchanged goals earlier in the period.
Star forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos were both back in the Lightning lineup after long absences. Kucherov missed the entire regular season after offseason hip surgery. Stamkos had been out for more than a month with a lower-body injury.
Follow our live updates throughout the game:
First period
Blake Coleman misses wide right of the net on a great chance from the slot after a pass from Yanni Gourde from below the goal line
Mikhail Sergachev goes hard into the boards after being hit by Frank Vatrano and Patric Hornqvist
Andrei Vasilevskiy gloves a wrist shot from Aleksander Barkov, and a brief scrum ensues
Nikita Kucherov and MacKenzie Weegar receive roughing penalties following a scrum along the boards, setting up a two-minute 4-on-4
Panthers just miss Jonathan Huberdeau on a stretch pass
Kucherov and Weegar are out of the box
Sergei Bobrovsky stops Ondrej Palat from in close after a great feed from Kucherov. Palat’s first shot went off Brandon Montour’s leg.
Alex Killorn whistled for slashing Huberdeau from behind as he drove the net, giving Florida a power play
Vasilevskiy stops Patric Hornqvist twice from in close
Apparent Panthers goal from Sam Bennett waived off, officials ruling Vasilevskiy had been shoved into the crease and was unable to play his position. Replays show Bennett pushed Vasilevskiy’s pad
LIGHTNING GOAL! Blake Coleman scores a backhand goal shorthanded on set play off the neutral-zone faceoff. Pass banked off the sidewall to Yanni Gourde, who feeds Coleman. Lightning 1, Panthers 0
Ryan McDonagh shoves Anthony Duclair into the side boards, resulting in a boarding penalty. Panthers will have a 5-on-3 advantage for about 10 seconds
Killorn exits the box and it’s now a 4-on-3 advantage for Florida
PANTHERS GOAL: Aleksander Barkov scores a power-play goal from above the right circle with Hornqvist setting a screen in front. Lightning 1, Panthers 1.
Mikhail Sergachev knocks down Sam Bennett
Frank Vatrano shot off the rush deflected wide of the net
Jan Rutta (holding) and Alexsander Barkov (roughing) receive minor penalties, resulting in a 4-on-4
Moments after Vasilevskiy stops a Huberdeau chance, Bobrovsky stones Kucherov on a breakaway
PANTHERS GOAL: Carter Verhaeghe blasts a shot past Vasilevskiy from the upper slot after a feed from Barkov. Panthers 2, Lightning 1.
Vatrano (unsportsmanlike conduct-embellishing) and Coleman (slashing) penalized after the goal. And we’ve got yet another 4-on-4, the third of the period.
Vasilevskiy gloves a shot from the high slot from Sam Bennett, then smothers the rebound.
Bobrovsky stops a backhand chance from Gourde as time expires in the period, then Gourde is hit from behind by Radko Gudas, setting off another scrum
(Panthers lead 2-1 at end of first period)
Your pregame scouting report
Here we go again. Can you believe it’s that time already?
Less than eight months after the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in Edmonton, the Bolts are back at it today, opening defense of their title as the 2021 playoffs get underway.
While similar to last season, the terrain is not altogether the same. We’re still in a pandemic, but teams are back playing in their home arenas, in front of increasingly larger crowds. So, rather than starting the postseason in a bubble in Toronto as they did a year ago, the Lightning will open their first-round series just a few hours from home in Sunrise.
Absent is the Columbus team that ousted Tampa Bay in the first round two seasons ago and pushed it in a five-game opening series a year ago. The Blue Jackets failed to make the postseason field, as did the Cup-finalist Dallas Stars.
Instead, the Lightning will begin play against an upstart Florida squad that hasn’t won a playoff series in 25 seasons but finished four points ahead of Tampa Bay in the Central Division standings, taking five of the eight regular-season meetings between the teams.
The format is different, too, as teams will stay within their divisions for the first two rounds of the playoffs to limit travel during the pandemic. That means the winner of the Lightning-Panthers series will meet the Carolina Hurricanes or Nashville Predators in the second round. The four division champs will then be reseeded based on regular-season points, with the winners of those series playing for the Stanley Cup.
As always, the Lightning will be buoyed by the presence of Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. And they expect to see a few familiar faces back on the ice in forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos. Kucherov spent the regular season on the long-term injured reserve list following offseason hip surgery. Stamkos has been out for the past month with a lower-body injury.
Follow our live coverage of Game 1, starting at 7:30 p.m., as the Lightning hope to take the first step toward becoming just the second team in the past 22 seasons (there was no season in 2004-05 due to a lockout) and first since the 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
If last season is any indication, it could be a long ride.
Setting the scene
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