Lightning pushed. Panthers responded. Now, Florida’s one win away from taking the series

The Florida Panthers knew they were going to get the Tampa Bay Lightning’s best on Thursday. Florida already had a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 opening-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series entering Game 3 with the series shifting to Tampa’s Amalie Arena. The Lightning knew it was virtually now or never to respond.

For about 10 minutes in the second period, Tampa Bay put together its best burst of sustained pressure in the series. It resulted in the Lightning getting its first lead of the series.

It didn’t last long.

Florida responded like it has done so many times before, scoring three consecutive goals en route to a 5-3 win to put itself one win away from taking the series against the Lightning.

Game 4, Florida’s first chance to clinch, is at 5 p.m. Saturday.

“We’re in a position right now that we would have dreamed about at the beginning of the series,” star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’re in a great position. To stand here now and say we’re up 3-0, I’ll gladly take it, but there have been stretched where they’ve played really, really well and I think it’s been a close series so far in the first three games.”

The best stretch for the Lightning came in the early going of the second period. Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead 2:56 into the frame, ending a run of 142:55 to begin the series without playing from ahead, on goals from Steven Stamkos and Tyler Motte.

That lead lasted ... just over seven minutes.

Tampa Bay continued to up the pressure over first half of the second period before the Panthers came in waves to retake the lead and get contributions from all throughout the lineup to mount its comeback.

Through it all, the Panthers didn’t waver. They never got tense. They stayed the course.

After all, they’ve learned how to deal with these types of situations before. They went to overtime eight times in the playoffs last season on their run to the Stanley Cup Final. Both of their first games of the series were tight, winning both games 3-2 — Game 1 in regulation, Game 2 in overtime. Ten of their wins during the regular season on the way to winning the Atlantic Division went beyond regulation and 30 of the 52 wins in total were decided by either one or two goals.

“We never dominated a lot of games this year,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s not really who we are. ... We’re in the grinder. Most of our games are tight and hard and battled. That 10-minute block that Tampa had in the second period isn’t that far off from the way we normally played. It’s not completely unusual for us.”

How do the Panthers do it? Maurice points to the bench.

“Good leadership,” the coach said. “The bench was right. It would be really good for all of you to be able to hear sometimes what Sam Reinhart would say in the bench in that push. It’s just so good and meaningful and impactful and more important than what the coach is saying — because he’s probably swearing.”

Tkachuk points to the team’s makeup.

“Other teams might tighten up. We’re the opposite,” Tkachuk said. “We’re trying more stuff. We’re trying to be the guys that can make a difference in the game and win the game for our team. ... We’re so calm and those are the areas where we’re thriving. It’s just the calmness in the locker room and confidence to have fun. We’re joking around. It’s just a blast.”

On the ice Thursday, the comeback began with Reinhart tying the game 9:58 into the second period, blasting a shot from the right circle on a feed from Vladimir Tarasenko. It was Reinhart’s second goal of the playoffs and 59th overall of the campaign — matching Pavel Bure for the most goals in a season in Panthers history when factoring in both the regular season and the playoffs.

Defenseman Brandon Montour then scored the go-ahead goal with 3:30 left in the middle period after a stellar shift from Florida’s fourth line of Steven Lorentz, Kyle Okposo and Nick Cousins to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

Lorentz then made it 4-2 9:41 into the third after taking a feed in the slot from Cousins following a Gustav Forsling dump in.

Before all that, Florida took the lead on a Tkachuk goal following a great setup from the rest of the second line in Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe. Tkachuk also iced the game with an empty-net goal with 32 seconds left on the clock.”

The penalty kill went a perfect 4 for 4 and is now 10 for 12 in the series.

And Sergei Bobrovsky was “Playoff Bob” once again. He made 26 saves, including 13 in a row to allow Florida to mount its comeback before Nicholas Paul got the Lightning within 4-3 with 5:10 left in regulation. Tkachuk sealed the game with an empty netter.

And it puts the Panthers one win away from advancing to the second round and beating the Lightning in the playoffs for the first time.

“You treat it like Game 1,” Montour said. “It’s going to be a tough one. Their season’s on the line. Everyone gets that they’re going to bring their best effort. ... Just treat it like another game, play our style, play our way.”