Sunrise, Florida – Eleven seconds. This is the time it took to redefine this series.
With less than four minutes to play in match No 4, it seemed that the first round series of the Eastern association between the Lightning of Tampa Bay and the Florida Panthers was going to find itself equally, and that the table was going to be put for the wild conclusion that everyone was waiting for. The panthers were able to count on goals from Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones in the space of 11 seconds to take the lead in the match, and possibly in the series, that Florida leads 3-1.
It means that panthers are now fortunate to eliminate the lightning on Wednesday at Amalia Arena (7:30 pm HE; FDSNSUN, Scripps, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360). However, the task does not look easy.
“We are trying to end the season of a team,” said the striker of the Panthers Carter Verhaeghe. Whenever you try to send a team on vacation, this team has nothing to lose, and it plays freely. They need three victories. They fought all year round, they had a very good season. They will not give up so easily, that’s for sure. »»
Extending this series, however, risks being more difficult for Lightning with the absence of Brandon Hagel, who will not be in match no 5 due to the nudder he received from Ekblad in match no 4. This game has earned a suspension of two games in Ekblad, he who had also missed the first two duels of the series while he finished serving his suspension of 20 games NHL/AJLNH anti -doping.
The intensity of this series has climbed, already with two suspensions of awarded. Hagel had also been suspended for match No. 3 due to his late defeating on Aleksander Barkov in match No. 2. Matthew Tkachuk chained with a similar blow on Jake Guentzel in the third duel, but did not receive an additional sanction. Then, in match no 4, Niko Mikkola received an misconduct of part for having given the band to the place of Zemgus Girgensons.
With elimination on the horizon, the only thing that counts is the team’s game on ice. And the Lightning must find a way to relaunch its offensive before it is too late.
“We have to post in front of their goalkeeper and uncheck more shots,” said striker Nick Paul. I think it starts with our failure before, which causes reversals. Then we have to send the disc to the net. We must not look for the perfect pass, simply uncheck shots and place players in the net to try to recover the returns. »»
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