The Tampa Bay Lightning played Game 1 of their first-round series against the Florida Panthers on April 22, and it was simply a bad night for the Bolts. The Lightning fell to the reigning Stanley Cup champions by a 6-2 final score and will now look to even up the series in Game 2 on April 24.
While it was certainly a rough night for the Lightning, Lightning rookie forward Gage Goncalves hit a career milestone during it. The 24-year-old forward recorded his first career playoff point by picking up an assist on Brayden Point's second-period goal.
Goncalves worked hard to record his first playoff point, too. After retrieving the puck in the Panthers' zone, Goncalves pushed through a check and made a nice feed to Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh. From there, McDonagh found Point in front, and the latter fired it home with a one-timer.
If the Lightning hope to get back into this series, they will need their young players like Goncalves to make an impact. The 2020 second-round pick certainly has the potential to, especially when noting he took a nice step forward with his game as the campaign rolled on. In his final 33 games of the regular-season, he had 18 points.
It will now be interesting to see if Goncalves can go on a hot streak after recording his first playoff point from here.
Lightning Need Big Bounce-Back Performance In Game 2
The Tampa Bay Lightning got their first-round series against the Florida Panthers started on April 22, and it could not have gone much worse for them. The Lightning fell to the Panthers by a 6-2 final score and now trail the series 1-0 because of it.
It was an all-around tough game for the Lightning. They struggled defensively, and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had a shaky night, allowing six goals on just 16 shots.
This was certainly not the way the Lightning wanted to start their series against the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Now, they desperately need a bounce-back performance in Game 2, or they will go down 2-0 in the series. This would put the Bolts in a bad position, as the Panthers will have home-ice advantage for Games 3 and 4. Thus, the Lightning need a win big time in Game 2.
If the Lightning can pick up a win in Game 2, it would undoubtedly make things less stressful for them. Going down 2-0 in the series would be a big challenge for the Lightning to overcome, so we will need to wait and see if they can avoid that from occurring from here.
Game 2 between the Lightning and Panthers will take place on April 24 at Amalie Arena. It will be interesting to see if the Lightning can get a much-needed win.
