Spencer Knight steadied the Panthers early in Game 5. And then the floodgates opened
The Florida Panthers needed every bit of Spencer Knight’s marvelous playoff debut Monday simply to stay in the series.
But he couldn’t win Game 5 game himself — even though he certainly tried his best.
Instead, Spencer needed his teammates to come along for the ride.
It took some regrouping, and more than a bit of dressing room soul searching, in the first intermission. But ultimately, his teammates joined the party.
The defense tightened and the offense woke up with three goals over a 15-minute stretch in Periods 2 and 3, powering the Panthers past the Lightning 4-1 and sending both teams back to Tampa for Game 6.
“We came into the room thinking, ‘Boy were we lucky,’” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said of the conversations during the first break in action. “That was our worst period in a long time.”
That stats would agree. If not for Knight’s brilliance — he gave up a two-on-one goal 53 seconds into regulation and then made 36 straight saves the rest of the way Monday — the Panthers might have trailed 3-0 or 4-0 instead of heading to intermission down just one.
The Lightning had 13 five-on-five scoring opportunities — including seven high-danger chances — in the first period. The Panthers had one.
Tampa put 22 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.
But Knight keep Florida within striking distance with poise belying his age. With each save, the home crowd of 11,551 — South Florida’s largest indoor sporting event attendance since the pandemic began — hit new decibel levels.
They were loud enough to wake up Knight’s supporting cast. The Panthers absolutely throttled Tampa Bay in the final 40, out-shooting the Lightning 23-15 over the final two periods.
And most importantly, they capitalized on those opportunities in a way that they hadn’t for much of this series.
MacKenzie Weegar tied the game 6:19 into the second period with the first playoff goal of his career, a wrist shot off a face-off.
“I wanted to get it off as fast as I could,” Weegar said. “Faceoffs are key. They’re key in the playoffs and it was nice to get one for the boys tonight.”
Some 10 minutes later, Weegar helped put the Panthers ahead for good, assisting on Mason Marchment’s second goal of the series.
“Tough first [period], but he had a great last 40 minutes,” Quenneville said of Weegar. “Obviously scoring a goal helped. He had a lot more composure with the puck.”
That was a bit of found treasure for Florida. Aleksander Barkov’s impactful game — probably his best of the series — was a big part of the turnaround too. Barkov assistant on two goals in the second period and forced the issue throughout the evening.
“I think everyone just kind of bought in,” Marchment said. “We know we can do it, so just kind of locking it down in tight and playing that team game. Knighter was [expletive] unbelievable and he stood on his head, and we tried to keep everything to the outside for him and lock down the slot there. They always try to find that little pocket there and just like I said, playing the team game and playing team defense.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 11:49 PM.
