Florida Panthers crush Tampa with 5-3 road win for 3-0 series lead, & history says it’s over | Opinion

It is a time-tested bromide in sports come playoff time: “The series doesn’t start until the road team wins a game” -- meaning a series doesn’t get interesting, get competitive, until then.

The philosophy is oft-credited to Miami Heat president Pat Riley, whose own team breathed life into the axiom with its stunning Game 2 victory Wednesday in Boston to offset the Celtics’ rout-win in Game 1. Immediately, rampant assumptions of a sweep by Boston were up in flames.

Thursday on ice it was the home team, Tampa Bay, down 2-0, desperate to make its first-round series interesting and competitive.

The Florida Panthers said no. Emphatically.

So now let’s change Riley’s saying slightly. Make it:

“The series doesn’t end until the road team wins a game”

That fits here.

That’s how monumental Wednesday’s 5-3 Game 3 victory upstate was for Florida.

Because now this best-of-7 series is (all but) over.

Hockey history tells us so.

Teams up 3-0 in an NHL playoff series have won 202 out of 206 times --or 98.1 percent of the time.

“We’re in a great position,” as Matthew Tkachuk put it. “To stand here now and say we’re up 3-0, I’ll gladly take it!”

Game 4 is back in Tampa on Saturday, and even a Lightning win would find Florida in position to clinch the series back in Sunrise in Game 5.

“We’re playing some good hockey right now, and we’re happy with where we’re at,” added Tkachuk. “The fourth (win) is the hardest, everyone says, so we have to come out absolutely ready to go on Saturday.”

Tampa coach Jon Cooper is aware of the historical odds of surviving an 0-3 hole.

“It’s tough when you get in situations like this what you’re going to say right at this moment (to the team),” he admitted. “But the talk is you want the believers to show up to the rink tomorrow. And if you’re not going to believe, then you don’t have to come. Well see how many guys show up tomorrow.”

Florida led 1-0 nine minutes into the game on Mathew Tkachuk’s finish in close.

Tampa equaled 1-0 in the first minute of the second period on Steven Stamkos’ goal (after an earlier apparent Lightning goal was called on review for being clearly offsides.

Lightning took their first lead of the series at 2-1 on Tyler Motte’s shot.

But the Cats dealt with that first deficit and quickly quieted the Tampa crowd -- first on Sam Reinhart’s tying goal, then on Brandon Montour’s shot for a 3-2 lead. Kyle Okposo, playing in his first playoff game since 2016, had one of the assists.

Insurance and a 4-2 lead came with 10:19 left in regulations on a Cinderella goal by little-known fourth-lline Cat Steven Lorentz. It was his first goal in 18 career playoff games. He scored only one goal all season long. He didn’t even play in Game 1.

Tampa would draw within 4-3 on Nicholas Paul’s shot with five minutes to play but Florida made the final score on Tkachuk’s empty netter with 31.5 seconds left.

And the only noise in the Tampa arena was by the fans clad in red who’d made the trip north.

The victory was richly earned as Florida scored five times despite not a single power play chance -- while the Panthers’ penalty-kill unit thwarted all four of Tampa Bay’s power play opportunities.

“I thought the big story would be penalty killing,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said -- correctly.

On a night when the Lightning was desperate for a home lift and life in this series, the Stanley Cup-dreaming Florida Panthers just kept saying no.