Takeaways: Tkachuk makes Panthers look whole again; Canes hold serve
Matthew Tkachuk made the Panthers look whole again in a dominant Game 1 win over the Lighting, while the Hurricanes held serve to go up 2-0 on the Devils. Ryan Dixon provides the takeaways from both games.
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The Florida Panthers are whole again.
The final Game 1 of the playoffs’ first round doubled — as many expected it would — as Matthew Tkachuk’s return to the Panthers lineup after an extended injury absence. Facing a Tampa Bay Lightning team that contains some of the key Canadian players he was mixing it up with at the 4 Nations Face-Off when he injured his groin, Tkachuk wasted no time on Tuesday night adding to his already-incredible body of work in the playoffs.
Tkachuk’s two power-play markers helped pace Florida to a startling 6-2 series-opening win versus their state rivals right in Tampa’s own building, as the Cats and Bolts meet for the fourth time in the past five springs.
Tkachuk’s first goal put Florida up 4-1 less than five minutes into the second period and established a new franchise playoff record, coming just 14 seconds after teammate Nate Schmidt had found the range.
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Five minutes later, Tkachuk was gleefully chomping his mouthguard again, beating Andrei Vasilevskiy to open up a four-goal advantage you knew his team was not going to give back.
Suddenly, the Cats — who went 6-9-1 down the stretch — have a lineup that boasts Tkachuk and Sam Bennett on the second line, with trade deadline pickup Brad Marchand rubbing opponents the wrong way on the third trio.
They also have a 1-0 lead on the Lightning, having stolen home-ice advantage in this series with the knowledge defenceman Aaron Ekblad — who was suspended 20 games in March for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program — will rejoin the squad for Game 3 in Sunrise.
Meanwhile, in the Metropolitan portion of the bracket, the Carolina Hurricanes held serve in their series with the New Jersey Devils, winning their second straight game on home ice in Raleigh by a score of 3-1 to seize a 2-0 advantage in that matchup.
There’s a lot to cover from these two Eastern Conference duels, so let’s dive in.
Cats perfect on power play
Tkachuk — who wound up with three points on the night — scoring a pair of goals in his return almost seemed pre-ordained. First-year Panther Nate Schmidt netting a couple markers of his own, however, certainly registers as a surprise.
Schmidt, who had five goals all year, swept in from the blueline to bang home a loose puck early in the second frame. He also concluded the scoring with a nice third-period wrister on the power play that made Florida a perfect 3-for-3 with the man advantage.
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Tampa takes it on the chin
Not only did the Lightning wind up getting blasted on the scoreboard, Tampa lost a key player along the way as smothering centre Anthony Cirelli did not emerge from the dressing room for the final 20 minutes.
And while defenceman Erik Cernak did gut his way through the entire contest, he was clearly hurting after taking a big wallop along the boards in the first period.
In the crease, Andrei Vasilevskiy had one of his roughest outings in months. The goalie — who had the best save percentage (.927) of any goalie in the league after the 4 Nations — allowed six goals on just 16 shots and wound up with a gruesome .625 save percentage in Game 1.
Basically, this game went about as poorly as it could have for the home side.
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Residual 4 Nations fun
We knew the 4 Nations was for real when, on a Saturday night in Montreal, Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves off the opening face-off. Moments later, Tkachuk’s brother, Brady, was fighting his Panthers linemate, Sam Bennett.
Well, Tkachuk and Hagel are still on opposite sides of a heated rivalry and were chirping at each other beside the team benches late in the first period. Of course, allegiances have changed in some cases and there was Jake Guentzel — an American sniper at the 4 Nations — taunting Tkachuk in the penalty box when Guentzel scored a first-period power-play marker for the Lighting while Tkachuk — who obviously took a penalty in his return to action — was sitting in the box for roughing up NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov.
One minute you’re running through a wall beside someone, the next you’re giving it to him as you try and throw dirt on his NHL season.
Andersen shines for Hurricanes
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After being the second-best team in Game 1 by some margin, the Devils needed a good start in Carolina. They got just that when Jesper Bratt whacked home the rebound from an Erik Haula shot less than four minutes into the contest to open the scoring.
Unfortunately for New Jersey, though, that was the last time it was able to get a puck past Frederik Andersen
The Carolina goalie stood tall in the crease all night, turning aside 25 New Jersey shots. Andersen was especially sharp in the third period, making a monster save on Timo Meier during a Jersey power play when the Devils winger ripped a one-timer from the right circle that the puckstopper was able to block with his left pad.
In all, Andersen has stopped 48 of the 50 shots New Jersey has directed his way through a pair of contests. It’s been a great showing so far for the oft-injured goalie, who was limited to 22 regular-season contests this year thanks to in-season knee surgery.
To be fair, Jacob Markstrom did his part in the Devils net, too. The big Swede didn’t have much of a shot on Shayne Gostisbehere’s goal that tied the contest early in the second, then was beaten by a perfect attempt off the stick of Jordan Martinook less than three minutes later.
Everything else the Canes threw Markstrom’s way, he turned aside.
Martinook makes it happen
As noted, the game-winning goal came courtesy of a 2-on-1 snipe from Jordan Martinook. It was a shorthanded beauty from a player who has been a big part of Carolina’s league-best penalty kill all season.
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Martinook also made a slick play on the sequence that led to Seth Jarvis icing the game with an empty-net goal. When the puck squirted toward the blueline after a face-off in the Carolina zone, Martinook grabbed it and — instead of simply trying to chip it out — he pivoted away from Jesper Bratt, took a beat and hit a streaking Jarvis just before he crossed the red line. The latter sped between two Devils checkers and slid the puck into the yawning cage.
Carolina is never going to overwhelm opponents with high-end skill. But quality third-liners like Martinook — who scored 15 goals this season and has three points in this series — lengthen this lineup and help give the Canes that ability to wear teams down.
Pesce plays his part
While it wasn’t enough to save his team from defeat, Devils D-man Brett Pesce certainly did all he could to make life tough on the Hurricanes. Facing the team he spent the previous nine seasons with, Pesce swept not one, but two pucks that were destined to cross the goal line out of the crease and away from danger.
When he wasn’t saving sure goals around the net, Pesce was sacrificing his body to make sure a number of pucks didn’t make it to Markstrom at all, blocking a game-high six shots.
New Jersey will need effort like that across the board to climb back into this series at home on Friday night.
