The Florida Panthers are moving on.
Fueled by Wednesday’s 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5, Florida is heading to the second round for the fourth consecutive postseason.
They’ll face the winner of the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.
It didn’t take long for the goals to start coming fast and furious on Wednesday night at Amalie Arena.
First it was Gage Goncalves from the doorstep, picking up a Luke Glendening shot and putting it behind a sprawling Sergei Bobrovsky just 2:33 into the game.
Carter Verhaeghe tied the game less than three minutes later, taking a feed from Matthew Tkachuk and backhanding it past Andrei Vasilevskiy.
A great play by Brad Marchand in the corner led to Florida’s next goal, as Marchand’s centering pass went off the leg of Anton Lundell and into the net at the 10:06 mark.
Florida’s lead lasted just over two minutes.
Connor Geekie stole the puck from Lundell in Florida’s zone and the puck went right to Nick Paul in the slot. He quickly spun around and beat Bobrovsky over the glove, knotting the score at two.
The second period had barely gotten going when Florida took the lead for a second time.
Defenseman Gus Forsling fired a one-timer from the point that was deflected by a screening Sasha Barkov to put the Cats up 3-2 just 52 seconds into the period.
A Jake Guentzel power play goal, Tampa’s first in 15 chances, tied the score at three midway through the middle frame.
The Bolts went right back on the power play when Sam Bennett took his second straight penalty, but it would be Bennett that got the last laugh this time
Immediately after Florida killed off the power play, Bennett took a pass from Lundell and went in all alone on Vasilevskiy, beating him to the blocker side to put the Panthers back in front.
Florida’s third line continued their amazing night, picking up a huge insurance goal for the Cats.
A steal by Lundell in the neutral zone led to Marchand collecting the puck in Tampa’s end.
Marchand sent a perfect feed to a cutting Eetu Luostarinen, whose fourth point of the game put Florida ahead 5-3.
Sam Reinhart added an empty-net goal to seal the victory for the Cats.
On to round two!
QUICK THOUGHTS
Verhaeghe has now scored in consecutive games. He had goals in three straight games and a five-game point streak to close out his regular season.
Also scoring in back-to-back games is Lundell, who has five points over his past two outings.
His buddy Eetu Luostarinen had quite a night, logging a goal and three assists on Wednesday for the first four-point game of his career.
Tkachuk’s assist gave him five points so far during the playoffs.
Barkov is also up to five playoff points after picking up his first goal of the postseason.
Reinhart is also up to six postseason points after logging an assist on Verhaeghe’s goal.
Marchand has picked up assists in back-to-back games and has four so far during the playoffs.
Not one, not two, not three but four assists over his last two games for Eetu Luostarinen after dishing a pair of apples in Game 5.
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