In Sunrise, Chris Driedger made 30 saves in a 4-0 Florida Panthers win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
“I kind of just show up,” Driedger said. “The guys played fantastic defensively tonight. I felt good. I was seeing the puck. Couple of breakaways I just felt solid on. I had good depth. But overall, just an incredible effort by the guys. Got a couple of fortunate bounces there in the third. I think we had two posts. There’s a reason why they’re a goalie’s best friend, but all in all a great win.”
The win secured second place in the Central Division for the Panthers.
“For these last two games, for the boys to come out the way they did, just to gain home-ice advantage in the first round is huge,” the Panthers’ Anthony Duclair said. “We know how important that is come playoff time. We’re really excited and we’re looking forward to it.”
MacKenzie Weegar and Juho Lammikko staked the Panthers to a 2-0 lead.
“There was a good dump by the D-man and I just went toward the puck and got it this time,” Lammikko said. “It was a good break.”
Carter Verhaeghe struck early in the third period for a 3-0 lead.
“The goal every year is to make the playoffs. In an unprecedented year, it’s tough,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “The guys buckled down and made the playoffs, good on them. … I’ve been part of playoffs series that we’ve won when we’ve had home ice, and I’ve been a part of playoff series that we lost when we’ve had home ice. The players will lock horns when the puck drops and we go from there.”
Alex Wennberg put the game out of reach with late third period goal for the 4-0 final.
“I’ve been bothering (him) since the first day he got injured to come back,” Duclair said. “We’re glad he’s back. He’s obviously a huge part of our lineup. We saw it again tonight how he can switch momentum with his speed and his skill.”
Tampa started Gemel Smith, Mathieu Joseph and Daniel Walcott, on the forward line; it was the first time an NHL team started with an all- black line.
“It was pretty awesome,” Joseph said. “It was great, a step in the right direction. It was fun to have some progress and it was great to see and I was glad I was part of it. We all laughed about it and were pretty happy. Any players of color in this league want to showcase to our families or other people of color. I thank the coaching staff for doing this.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves in the loss.
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