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Get ready as the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begins to wrap up, with several teams on the verge of progressing to the next round in their best-of-seven series. The Florida Panthers take on the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 3-1 series lead and could be one of the first teams to move on to the next round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a win tonight.
Catch Game 5 between Florida and Tampa Bay at 7:30 PM ET sharp, but not before reviewing our picks and deciding whether you want to fade or follow!
The No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Division Florida Panthers are trying to come out of the battle of Florida over their intra-state counterparts of Tampa Bay with a comfortable 3-1 series lead. Despite finishing in the NHL behind the 1st place Lightning, the Panthers came out the gates firing in Game 1 with a 6-2 smashing victory. The winning streak would continue with another 2-0 away win before losing their first home game 5-1 in Game 3. In their most recent home game, the Panthers would come away with a 4-2 win to take the 3-1 series lead as we head into Game 5 tonight.
Matthew Tkachuk has a brilliant start to the series, posting 2 goals and an assist in Game 1, while teammate Nate Schmidt would also tuck away 2 in the 6-2 win. In Game 2, Nate Schmidt, once again, found the back of the net while teammate Sam Bennett netted the insurance goal in the 2-0 victory. In Game 3’s defeat, Matthew Tkachuk would add to his tally of postseason goals with the only goal for the Panthers. In their most recent Game 4, four different goal scorers would find the back of the net including Anton Lundell (1 goal and 1 assist), Aaron Ekblad (1 goal), Seth Jones (1 goal) and Carter Verhaeghe (1 goal), allowing the Panthers to head to Game 5 with a 3-1 series lead.
The Panthers postseason stats show four different players sitting at 4 points, including Aleksander Barkov (4 assists), Sam Reinhart (1 goal and 3 assists), Sam Bennet (2 goals and 2 assists), and Matthew Tkachuk (3 goals and 1 assist). I expect Tkachuk to score 1+ more goals in this potential final game for the Panthers.
Despite Tampa Bay concluding their regular season in 1st place in the Atlantic Division, they had a rough start against their Florida rivals, suffering a 6-2 loss at home in Game 1. While the deficit was slightly narrower in Game 2, the Lightning would lose both their first two home games as a higher seed in the playoffs. Game 3 was much better, as Tampa Bay found the back of the net 5 times, only allowing the Panthers to score once, improving their overall playoff goal differential. By the end of Game 4, the Lightning would slip in another 4-2 loss to set the series at 1-3 as of April 28.
Game 1 against the Panthers only saw Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point make the scoreboard with a goal each, while in Game 2, they were shut out completely. Game 3 was a major bounce-back for Tampa Bay, showcasing five different goal scorers, including Jake Guentzel (1 goal and 2 assists), Anthony Cirelli (1 goal), Luke Glendening (1 goal), Nicholas Paul (1 goal) and Brayden Point (1 goal), and regular-season points leader Nikita Kucherov finished with 3 assists.
Only center Jake Guentzel (2 goals and 3 assists) and Nikita Kucherov (4 assists) continue to pave the way for Tampa Bay’s offense in the postseason, so if the Lightning don’t get their act together for this one, it could spell the end of their playoff run and season altogether.
The Panthers have shown dominance over their Floridian rivals in goal scoring, with 13 goals in four games compared to the Lightning’s 9. While both sides boasted similar regular season goal differentials, the Panthers have taken to the playoffs with much higher confidence. If Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky follows up on his promising postseason while allowing just 2.01 goals per game on average (with the potential for another shutout), this game could be as good as done by the end of regulation.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy is by no means at full fault for allowing 13 goals past him in the playoffs, but he will certainly need to improve on his 2.79 goals allowed per game if the Lightning want any hopes of crawling back in Game 5.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.