SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers failed to capitalize on home-ice advantage, falling 5-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of their first-round series on April 26.
Florida got star defenseman Aaron Ekblad back from a 20-game suspension, with captain Aleksander Barkov returning after leaving Game 2 with an injury with 10 minutes to go.
Even with star winger Brandon Hagel serving a one-game suspension, Tampa Bay’s high-end talent came to play to help it avoid a three-game hole. Jake Guentzel scored two points and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 of 34 shots to make it a 2-1 series lead for Florida.