The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-0 on Saturday evening, and in doing so they clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Led by a strong performance from goaltender Ben Bishop and a three-point night from captain Steven Stamkos, the Bolts were able to weather the storm and defeat their state rival for the third time this year. They were outshot heavily (34-22), but they got saves and goals when the Panthers did not.
While the shot clock paints a fairly lopsided picture, the following possession chart says something else:
5v5 Corsi chart for #TBLvsFLA from @HockeyStatsCa shows a fairly even matchup before score effects took charge. pic.twitter.com/PmJLAadw3k
— Michael Stuart (@hockeybuzzstu) April 5, 2015It wasn’t until the second period that the scoring party got started, courtesy of Steven Stamkos’s first of two on the night. At 6:10 of the middle frame, Stamkos scored a power play goal to end his longest goalless drought since 2009. His 41st of the season, assisted by Tyler Johnson and Nikita Nesterov, turned out to be the game-winner.
In case you weren’t convinced that the captain’s drought was *really* over, he struck again only moments later. At 11:19, Stamkos scored his 42nd of the season with help from Ryan Callahan. When his team needed offense, Stamkos delivered by beating Roberto Luongo.
Ben Bishop held strong through the first two frames, and so the Lightning went into the second intermission holding that 2-0 lead. However, the Panthers still had time on the clock to erase that deficit and pull themselves back into the game.
That was until Ryan Callahan scored the dagger just 1:03 into the third period. Sprung by (you guessed it!) Stamkos, Callahan walked in and beat Luongo with a weak shot. The goal was Callahan’s 24th of the season, and one that the Florida goaltender just has to have.
The Panthers piled up the shots as the third period moved along, but Bishop was there to make each and every single save. Before the final buzzer rang, Tyler Johnson scored his 27th of the season with help from Jonathan Drouin to make it a 4-0 game.
That’s everything the fat lady needed to see before she started singing from the rafters. As the Panthers season came to a fateful end, her voice echoed through the BB&T Center and its multitude of empty seats.
This win was a big one for the Lightning. Not only did it help them clinch home-ice advantage for round one, but it also moved them into a tie with the Montreal Canadiens for first place in the Atlantic Division. Now off until Thursday, the Bolts can just focus on getting healthy while letting out-of-town scoreboard do its thing.
With that out-of-town scoreboard in mind, here's a playoff-related poll question:
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.