The host Florida Panthers kept their season alive by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 in Game 5 of their Central Division first-round playoff series on Monday night in Sunrise.
Tampa Bay holds a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-7 series. The Lightning will host Game 6 on Wednesday night.
The Panthers started 20-year-old rookie Spencer Knight who is believed to be the seventh-youngest goalie in NHL history to make his postseason debut.
It did not look good for Knight and the Panthers early as Blake Coleman and Ross Colton broke loose on a 2-on-1 in the opening minute. Colton scored after Knight played the puck.
Knight, the youngest goalie to start his NHL career 4-0 in the regular season, then stopped the next 21 shots he faced in the opening period as the Lightning took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Florida tied the score at 1 at 6:19 of the second period when MacKenzie Weegar tallied on a slap shot off a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau.
The Panthers took their first lead since winning Game 3 with 3:05 remaining in the second on a goal from Mason Marchment.
Florida got a little bit of breathing room early in the third period when Aleksander Barkov’s point shot deflected off of Patric Hornqvist and past Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Panthers wrapped it up with an empty net goal from Frank Vatrano in the final seconds.
Knight, who starred at Boston College, ended his first NHL playoff game with 36 saves, and he will likely be in net for Game 6 on Wednesday.
Vasilevskiy made 34 saves in the loss.
–Field Level Media