Vasilevskiy was on top of his game against the Panthers.Ĭulminating with a 49-save shutout in Game 4, Tampa Bay's star goaltender improved to 4-0 with a. Here are five takeaways from Monday's loss in Tampa… 1. "It's a tough pill to swallow," said defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who returned from injury to lead Florida in postseason ice time. Sometimes, it's that pain that puts a team over the top down the road. There was one last year, and then we got through one round, and now we ran into Tampa again."īut as for the immediate future, this latest defeat is going to sting for a bit. "I don't think it was from a lack of effort," Brunette said of this year's early exit. Moving forward, it's all about what you do with the lessons you learn along the way. They lost in the first round twice, the Eastern Conference Final twice, the Stanley Cup Final once, and even missed the playoffs entirely during the 2016-17 campaign. Prior to winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Lightning spent six seasons trying to get to the top of the mountain. Need an example? Look no further than the team that came out on top in tonight's matchup. In moments like this, it's important to remember Rome wasn't built in a day. With 22.1 seconds left on the clock, Ondrej Palat scored on the empty net to make it 2-0 and lock in the win for Tampa Bay. Standing tall one last time, Vasilevskiy somehow kept Jonathan Huberdeau from scoring what would've been the game-tying goal right around the right post. Unable to get any of their 15 shots in the final frame past Vasilevskiy, the Panthers received their best opportunity to tie the game when a late delay-of-game penalty gave them a power play, which later turned into a 6-on-4 with the goalie pulled, with 2:30 remaining in regulation. Soon after, Nikita Kucherov's goal was negated because it had been set up by an illegal hand pass.įrom there, the game would remain scoreless until the Lightning - for real this time - finally broke the ice when Pat Maroon whacked a fluttering puck out of mid-air that clipped off part of Sergei Bobrovsky before trickling across the goal line to make it 1-0 at 6:16 of the third period. First, Alex Killorn had a goal came back because the puck went out of play prior to the score.
In the second period, the Lightning had a pair of goals taken off the board after reviews. Of his saves in the opening 20 minutes, none were bigger than a doorstep denial on Radko Gudas. The reason for no goals - in addition to the Lightning blocking 11 shots - was, again, Vasilevskiy. We could've done a lot of things differently, but our effort was there every game."Ĭoming out flying, the Panthers outshot the Lightning 17-3 during a scoreless first period. They play really well, so it's hard to get to.
"You know everything about him," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said of Vasilevskiy. Shutting the door to lead Tampa Bay to a sweep in the best-of-7 series, the former Vezina Trophy winner gave up just three goals during the entire series. Not for lack of effort, the Panthers fired off 49 shots against the Lightning, but all of them were gobbled up by Andrei Vasilevskiy. I believed that we were ready for that next step, but unfortunately we fell short." "There's another level we've got to climb. "I think we're closer than ever, but we got swept," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said confidently when asked about the future.
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