An early third period goal by old friend Carter Verhaeghe had the Tampa Bay Lightning chasing a one-goal deficit for most of the third period, and despite a late goal from Steven Stamkos, they couldn’t catch the Florida Panthers in Game One of the NHL playoffs. The Panthers used goals from Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, and Verhaeghe along with 17 saves, including three big ones in the third period, by Sergei Bobrovsky for the 3-2 win.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 27 shots while Brandon Hagel and Stamkos had the goals for the Bolts. Tyler Motte and Luke Glendening were back in the line-up for the Bolts after missing games at the end of the regular season with injuries.