The Florida Panthers have found themselves in striking position in the playoff duel against the state rival Tampa Bay Lightning. 5-3 on the road at Amalie Arena Friday night gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the series.
One of Florida’s match heroes was Gustav Forsling, 27, currently in third place in the Panthers’ internal scoring. The former Linköping defender played Steve Lorenz to 4-2 and Matthew Tkachuk to 5-3. Forsling has scored three points (0+3) in the playoffs and played 25.57, the most of any Panthers player.
Steve Lorentz, 28, scored his first playoff goal in his 18th playoff game. The forward from the hockey metropolis of Kitchener in Ontario shot quickly from the slot after Forsling went up with the puck in the attack zone.
– We knew they would come out hard, that they would have crowd support and gain momentum… but we defended well and 3-0 (in the match series) is much better than 2-1, stated Steve Lorentz.
The Panthers survived four numerical deficits. Gustav Forsling played long minutes in box play, where the team nailed it again: Forsling has played a total of 9.17 in numerical disadvantage and in the team he has only Aaron Ekblad (12.17) and Aleksander Barkov (9.24) ahead of him in that statistic.
– Before the match, I thought that the game in numerical disadvantage would be the big thing in the match; they have a very skilled power play, Florida coach Paul Maurice said. The players who played outnumbered for us were phenomenal. Smart players who have done a good job all year.
