Andrei Vasilevskiy looked like his old self on Saturday, just when the Tampa Bay Lightning needed him most.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner made 33 saves, allowing only an early goal by Matthew Tkachuk, to help the Lightning to a 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference First Round series. Florida still leads the series 2-1 and hosts Game 4 on Monday night.
Vasilevskiy has allowed just two goals in two games after coughing up six on 17 shots in Florida’s 6-2 victory in Game 1. The Lightning’s 2-0 loss in Game 2 wasn’t his fault, but it left them desperate for a win after losing the first two games at home, and he responded like a champion should.
The Panthers had a 17-7 advantage in high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 and 22-11 in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. But Vasilevskiy was flawless after Tkachuk put Florida ahead 2:49 into the game, earning the game’s First Star.
Unlike Game 2, the Lightning found ways to solve Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Jake Guentzel, the best Tampa Bay skater on the ice, had a goal and two assists; NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov had three assists and forward Gage Concalves and defenseman Ryan McDonagh each had two.
“It is a huge win for our team, gives us some confidence and some life in this series,” Guentzel said. “It’s a good step in the right direction for all of us. But it’s only one game. We have to be ready to go for the next one.”
The Panthers still lead the series, but they’ll have to raise their game a lot to avoid going back to Tampa for Game 5 all even.
“I don’t think we were great, but offensively, we probably generated more [Saturday] than in either of the other two games,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We have lots of room to get better; I am sure they do too. This is going to be a grinder straight through.”
Related: Nate Schmidt’s scoring touch among Game 2 takeaways as Florida blanks Tampa Bay 2-0
3 takeaways from the Lightning’s 5-1 win against Florida in Game 3
Vasy’s back
Vasilevskiy looked like the goaltender who finished the season with a career-best 2.18 goals-against average rather than the one who couldn’t stop a beach ball in Game 1.
His positioning was flawless. He was quick without being too fast when moving across the crease. The Panthers had plenty of Grade A chances to score, but Vasilevskiy kept them off the board for the final 57-plus minutes after Tkachuk opened the scoring.
Teams that lose the first two games in a best-of-7 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are 56-353, a .137 winning percentage. Tampa Bay has rallied twice to win after going down 0-2 since entering the NHL in 1992. Vasilevskiy was in goal the last time it happened, when the Lightning dropped the first two games of the 2022 Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers before winning four in a row.
If Vasilevskiy plays like he did Saturday, the Lightning have a good chance for another 0-2 comeback.
Also Read: NHL playoff predictions: Picks for every 1st-round series, 2025 Stanley Cup champion
2. Bounces go Lightning’s way
Tampa Bay raised its game after losing twice at home. But the Lightning also got the benefit of some bounces that went their way.
Brayden Point’s game-tying goal at 17:15 of the first period came when Guentzel’s shot from the slot hit his shin pad and deflected past Bobrovsky. Nick Paul’s go-ahead goal at 13:17 of the second came on a shot that hit a defender and went into the net.
Guentzel’s back-breaking goal 21 seconds into the third period came when he swatted a bobbling pass from Kucherov over Bobrovsky’s shoulder. Not only was Guentzel able to get the puck up quickly because it wasn’t lying flat, Bobrovsky lost his stick a few seconds earlier.
3. Bad feelings keep growing
The Lightning were without forward Brandon Hagel, who sat out a one-game suspension for a late hit on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in the third period of Game 2. The Panthers could be missing Tkachuk for Game 4 after he made the same kind of late hit on Guentzel in the final minutes on Saturday.
Guentzel wasn’t looking after making a neutral-zone pass to Cirelli that resulted in an empty-net goal, and he was leveled by Tkachuk. It wasn’t a hit to the head, and while “it seemed pretty late,” Guentzel told TNT after the game — and earned Tkachuk a major penalty for interference — it didn’t appear to be as severe as Hagel’s hit, which knocked Barkov out of the game.
There were plenty of scrums before and after Tkachuk’s hit, and linesmen Devin Berg and Bevan Mills spent much of the afternoon pulling the in-state rivals apart. Expect the linesmen for Game 4 to be faced a lot of similar situations.