SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Aleksander Barkov remembers the disappointment of years past. The Tampa Bay Lightning had eliminated his Florida Panthers from the NHL playoffs in each of their previous three meetings, and if the Panthers wanted to cement themselves as one of the NHL’s best, this year’s result needed to be different. “At some point you knew you were going to have them again,” Barkov said, “and you’ve got to be able to get over that hump, and we did it this year.” Barkov and Carter Verhaege each had two goals and an assist to go along with 31 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky, and the Panthers beat the Lightning 6-1 in Game 5 on Monday night to clinch their first-round series and advance in the NHL playoffs. Niko Mikkola had a goal and an assist, Evan Rodrigues also scored and Matthew Tkachuk had two assists for the Panthers, who won a playoff series against Tampa Bay for the first time in franchise history and clinched a postseason series at home for only the fourth time. Florida bested Boston and Philadelphia on home ice in the first two rounds of the 1996 playoffs, then eliminated Carolina at home in last season’s Eastern Conference finals en route to their second Stanley Cup Final appearance. |
Sichuan panda base bans visitors for bad behaviorScottie Scheffler arrested and charged with felony assault on a cop outside PGA ChampionshipVillage tourism in Xizang ushers in spring amid peach blossom viewingImproving Germany snatch comeback win over NetherlandsJD to expand tradeWADA to hold extraordinary meeting in Chinese swimmers caseHainan hits new records in tourist arrivals, revenueGuangzhou blow out Xinjiang to stay alive in playoffsLegislation protecting Xinjiang ancient city comes into forceOlympic flame arrives in Marseille amid tight security