Suddenly, surprisingly, a night in search of an ending and a season in search of a hero found the most unlikely Florida Panther of all.
Ryan Lomberg is no one’s idea of a hero. He’s a pest, an annoyer, the over-energetic guy you asked to deliver a hard shot in the corner — not take the shot of the season. Tampa Bay players hated him this playoff series for his in-their-face presence more than feared him for his goal-scoring touch.
Put this third one in a frame, too, for the moment it made. There came Lomberg picking up a pass from Frank Vatrano, slicing around the Tampa Bay defense and putting the puck in a goal scorer’s spot — the upper corner of the net — to win Game 3 of this series, 6-5 in overtime.