The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Saturday afternoon at Amerant Bank Arena, narrowing Florida’s series lead to 2-1. The road team has won all three games in this tightly contested series.
The Lightning’s offense came alive in Game 3, supported by a strong performance from goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. After Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk scored the game’s first goal at 2:43 of the first period, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point answered with his second goal of the playoffs at 17:15, tying the game 1-1.
Nick Paul scored the eventual game-winning goal at 13:17 of the second period, giving Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead. Jake Guentzel extended the lead early in the third period, scoring at 0:21.
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Luke Glendening’s goal at 14:19 of the third put Tampa Bay ahead 4-1. Anthony Cirelli sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with five minutes remaining in regulation.
With this win, Tampa Bay improves to 6-3 all-time in Game 3 when trailing 2-0 in a best-of-seven series. The Lightning are 14-6 in franchise history in road Game Four’s and 12-5 in home Game Five’s.
The Lightning have rallied to win two of the previous series. The series continues with Game 4 on April 28th at Florida.
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