Lightning Sweeps Panthers To Advance to NHL East Finals

The Florida Panthers won the President’s Trophy as the team with the NHL’s best regular season record, but they won’t be moving on after the defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning swept their four game second round series with their Sunshine State rival.

The Panthers not only had the best regular season record in the league, they also scored the most goals per game, averaging 4.11. But the Panthers scored just one goal in each of the first three games of the series, and then were shut out 2-0 in Game 4 by a 49 save performance by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in the first round. They will face the winner of the Carolina-New York Ranger series in the Eastern Conference Finals. That series is tied at 2-2. The Lightning are trying for their third straight Stanley Cup championship; if they get it, it will be the first time since the 1980-83 New York Islanders won four straight.