Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning Dominate Panthers in Last Game Before Break
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper always enjoys playing the Florida Panthers.
“The games are a ton of fun,” he said in a press conference before Thursday’s matchup. “The competition level and intensity level is as big as anything I’ve ever been in games. It’s a lot of fun.”
For fans, a majority of the game was as advertised — lots of scoring and physicality. However, round four of the Battle of Florida was rather one-sided. Even though the Panthers (29-25-3) out-shot the Lightning by six, Tampa (37-14-4) remained unphased as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 33-save performance led them to a comfortable 6-1 win over their in-state rival.
Like most of these battles between the two Florida teams, there are scrums throughout the game. The third period brought the biggest one.
Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk ran right into Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov away from the play. That ignited an all-out brawl at center ice featuring three ejections — Carter Verhaeghe, J.J. Moser and Panthers head coach Paul Maurice — and 114 penalty minutes of the 149 in the game given out in one stoppage.
Cooper compared it to their last exhibition game against Florida . The Panthers won that one 7-0, but both teams combined for 312 penalty minutes.
Tampa needed its star netminder to be on his A-game Thursday – and he delivered. It started early with an onslaught of shots by the Panthers. Florida outshot Tampa 19-7 in the first period and went on the man advantage — including nearly 1:30 of 5-on-3 hockey. However, Vasy stayed sharp and won.
He continued to show his dominance through the game by not allowing anything to the Panthers. Florida went on the man advantage seven times in the game, but had no goals to show for it after scoring two up a man Wednesday against Boston.
Vasilevskiy also robbed Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich on a 2-on-1 opportunity that could’ve gained Florida some positive momentum. This kept the Cats off the board for the second period and helped Tampa continue their domination. Samoskevich eventually put Florida on the board, but it was too little too late.
Not only was Tampa’s goalie unstoppable this game, but all season. In his last 17 games, he has not lost in regulation and only has one overtime loss in that time. This stretch by Vasilevskiy has helped them get to the top of the Eastern conference after a 19-1-1 stretch in their last 21 games.
Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said this stretch has boosted everyone’s confidence down the stretch.
“It’s been incredible,” he said. “You can gain a lot from continuing to win and playing the right way. I think that’s what we’ve done.”
He got the scoring started for the Lightning, ripping one past Panther’s goaltender Daniil Tarasov. For Tarasov, the night only got longer. While he didn’t face many shots, he let the horn go off five times in the game only saving 20 of the 25 shots he faced.
The injuries keep piling on for Florida as well. Tarasov went down in the third period after taking a shot off his mask.
Both teams go into the Olympics Break at completely different places. Tampa sits atop the Atlantic, while Florida is at the bottom.
While the Cats would look at this break and say it is a good thing for everyone back to 100%, the Bolts could see this as a negative. As one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment, the last thing that any team would want is extended time off. However, Cooper said this would be a good thing not only for the players participating in the Olympics, but the people taking off.
When Tampa comes back from the break, it has a matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 25. The Panthers play the Leafs the day after on Feb. 26.
Category: Florida Panthers, NHL, Tampa Bay Lightning
