As many reasons to celebrate as the Florida Panthers might have found on Tuesday, there was a very serious concern affecting them in Game 2 and potentially further through their hopeful postseason run.
The Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lighting 3-2 in OT in Game 2 of their first-round series on April 23 but they paid a high cost for that as they lost second-line center Sam Benett to a hand injury at the end of the second period.
With a little under five minutes remaining in the second frame and the game tied at 2-2, Brandon Montour attempted a slap shot from the right point of the Panthers offensive zone and inadvertently hit Bennett’s left hand.
Bennett immediately grabbed his hand, dropped his stick, and then skated to the bench to get into the locker room for treatment.
The Panthers ruled Bennett out for the rest of the game played on April 23 shortly after he hit the tunnel.
Sam Bennett Scored the Panthers’ Opening Goal of Game 2
Before leaving the game with a hand injury, Bennett was the man opening the scoreboard a bit over six minutes into the first period.
The center launched a counterattack by the Panthers through the right side of the ice and although there was a little bit of a bouncy scramble, he ultimately found the pack in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s net and easily put it in to put Florida 1-0 ahead.
Bennett was also credited with the assist on the second goal scored by the Panthers in Game 2. He blocked Vasilevskiy’s view, received the puck on the slot, moved it to teammate Vladimir Tarasenko to his left, and the Russian put it in the net to double Florida’s lead with less than five minutes left in the first frame.
Bennett Has Produced Good Numbers Centering Florida’s Second Line
Only four Florida Panthers players put up more points than Bennett this regular season. The center finished the year with 41 points including scoring 20 goals and assisting 21 more. Bennett ranked 10th in total assists among his teammates while scoring the fifth-most goals.
When it comes to postseason play, Bennett has appeared in 67 games (including Tuesday’s) scoring 19 goals and providing 25 assists for 44 total points throughout his career. He reached the playoffs four times with the Calgary Flames between 2015 and 2020 and he followed that with four consecutive postseason appearances after joining the Panthers.
Bennett logged 16:15 minutes of ice time in Game 1 against the Lightning on April 21, although he finished that contest with just 1 shot on goal skating 20 shifts.
Just 7:42 TOI in Game 2 (12 shifts) was enough for Bennett to put up his first 2 points of this year’s playoffs including 1 goal and 1 assist, as well as a positive plus-1 plus/minus value.
The Lightning forced overtime in Game 2 by scoring two unanswered goals in the second period of a matchup in which both goalies were excellent at preventing the puck from getting into their nets for the most part.
Sergei Bobrovsky had arguably the save of the playoffs while stopping 21 of the 23 shots he saw for a .913 save percentage. Fellow netminder Vasilevskiy saved 34 of 36 shots for an even better .919 SV%.
Already in OT, however, the Panthers found a way to crack the Lightning’s goalie code for a third and final time as Carter Verhaeghe scored the game-winning goal at the 2:59 mark.
It was Verhaeghe’s 18th playoff goal with Florida, one that saw the Panthers get a commanding 2-0 lead in the first-round series as both teams will move to Tampa Bay for the next two games.
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