Two defensemen — Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones — scored the tying and go-ahead goals late in the third period as the host Florida Panthers rallied for a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers — the reigning Stanley Cup champions — lead the series 3-1. Game 5 is set for Wednesday night in Tampa Bay.
“It’s nice to give our fans that win,” Jones said. “We’re up 3-1, but we understand the job is not finished.”
Monday’s game is the only one so far in this series won by the home team.
Florida appeared to tie the score at 2 with 12:58 left in the third period on a would-be goal by Ekblad. But the goal was wiped out due to offsides.
But with 3:47 left, Ekblad tied the score on a rebound, and Jones got the game-winner on a carom 11 seconds later.
“We were four minutes away from being tied 2-2 (in the series),” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “It’s frustrating.”
Mitchell Chaffee and Erik Cernak also scored 11 seconds apart for Tampa Bay in the second period, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning.
Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe (empty netter) also scored for the Panthers, who got 18 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.
The game was highly physical, including Ekblad’s high hit on Brandon Hagel. In addition, Florida’s Niko Mikkola was ejected for boarding Zemgus Girgensons.
Florida opened the scoring with 10:54 left in the second period. The play started when Florida dumped the puck in and Panthers forward Brad Marchand got there first. Marchand drew four Lightning defenders before dishing the puck to Lundell, who, alone in the slot, beat Vasilevskiy to his stick side.
With 8:34 left in the second period, Ekblad got away with a right forearm to the face of Hagel, who was playing his first game since a one-contest suspension for his hit on Aleksander Barkov.
On the Ekblad hit, Hagel fell backward and hit his head on the ice.
Hagel went directly to the locker room to get checked out, and his teammates responded with two goals in 11 seconds.
Tampa Bay tied the score at 1 with 7:39 left in the second on a rebound shot by Chaffee. On the rebound, Bobrovsky momentarily lost sight of the puck, which slid under his left pad.
Following the goal, the Lightning won the faceoff, and Cernak scored off the right post. A screen by Nikita Kucherov may have hindered Bobrovsky’s vision of the puck.
Florida tied the score at 2 with 3:47 left in the third. Sam Reinhart took a long shot to start the play. Ekblad, left alone in front, chipped the rebound under Vasilevskiy’s glove.
Jones’ goal gave Florida a 3-2 lead, and Verhaeghe scored into an empty net with 1:40 left.
–Field Level Media
