tbl_fla_game3_preview_april25

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The last time the Florida Panthers took the ice for a postseason game at Amerant Bank Arena, it ended with them winning their first Stanley Cup championship. It was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season, with the Edmonton Oilers having forced the Panthers to the brink of squandering a 3-0 series lead. They wouldn’t lose Game 7.

It wasn’t something that had occurred to Evan Rodrigues until he was sitting at a podium on Friday, his Panthers having gone up 2-0 in this series by winning the first two games in Tampa in the Eastern Conference First Round.

“It’s giving me a little bit of chills thinking about that,” Rodrigues said. “It’ll be an awesome atmosphere, cool experience, and now I’m really looking forward to it.”

The Panthers are the defending Stanley Cup champions. And, so far in this series, they’re playing like it, something they will try to continue in Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, SN, TVAS).

But now, as the series shifts back to Sunrise after a game in which the intensity and rivalry ramped up tremendously, the Lightning are looking to get back on track after two uncharacteristic games for a team that many had started to believe could contend for the Cup.

Making that more difficult will be the absence of Brandon Hagel, who scored a career-high 35 goals this season. Hagel was assessed a major penalty for interference at 9:51 of the third period of Game 2 after a hit that sent Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov crashing into the boards. Barkov did not return to the game after the hit but will be in the lineup Saturday.

Hagel had a hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Friday, after which he was suspended for Game 3.

Tampa Bay already was struggling to score, with two goals in the first two games of the series. There have been plenty of opportunities in front of Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, including eight power plays in two games, but the Lightning have not been able to cash in enough.

When asked how the team would fix its scoring woes, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said, “We'll find a way. We'll find a way.”

Teams that go up 3-0 in a Stanley Cup Playoff series are 207-4 (.981) all time.

Here is a breakdown of Game 3:

Lightning: Tampa Bay's lack of scoring has been highlighted by the lack of scoring of forward Nikita Kucherov. The two-time defending Art Ross Trophy winner has not scored a goal in the playoffs since April 18, 2023, going 12 games without a goal (though he has 11 assists in that span, including one in Game 1). It’s especially notable given that the Lightning were the best offensive team in the NHL in the regular season, averaging 3.56 goals per game.

Panthers: Florida will see the return of defenseman and alternate captain Aaron Ekblad, who was suspended without pay for 20 games on March 10 for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. Ekblad missed the final 18 games of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs. He will slot back in his usual spot on the top pair alongside Gustav Forsling. The Panthers’ penalty kill is playing exceptionally well so far in the series, allowing one goal on eight chances to the Lightning, that coming from forward Jake Guentzel in the first period of Game 1.

Number to know: Two. That's the number of defensemen in the NHL’s modern era, since 1943-44, who have scored a game-winning goal in each of his team’s first two games in a playoff year. The first was Nicklas Lidstrom in Games 1 and 2 of the 2007 Conference Quarterfinals. The other is Nate Schmidt, who has three goals so far this postseason.

What to look for: Can the Lightning fix their scoring issues and figure out how to beat Bobrovsky? How do the Panthers adjust if Barkov is out of the lineup?

What they are saying

“We just unfortunately lost two at home and so, now there's work ahead of us. ... But we've had success in that building. We like playing there. I know they'd rather be at home than on the road, but I kind of take the home ice out of it in this series. We're so used to playing in these environments, I think the road team relishes being in that situation. The only difference is one coach makes the last change. That's it.” -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

“Your mindset can’t change whether you’re up or down in a series. I think that’s the biggest thing. The next game is always the biggest one and that’s been our mindset going all the way back to last year and I’m sure for the guys that were here, going back the year before. It’s one game at a time. Tomorrow’s game’s the biggest one, right?” -- Rodrigues on having the lead in the series

Lightning projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov

Nick Paul -- Anthony Cirelli -- Gage Goncalves

Conor Geekie -- Yanni Gourde -- Mitchell Chaffee

Zemgus Girgensons -- Luke Glendening -- Cam Atkinson

Victor Hedman -- J.J. Moser

Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak

Nick Perbix -- Emil Lilleberg

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Darren Raddysh

Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body)

Suspended: Brandon Hagel

Panthers projected lineup

Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart

Mackie Samoskevich -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand

Evan Rodrigues -- Nico Sturm -- Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones

Nate Schmidt -- Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky

Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna, Uvis Balinskis, A.J. Greer

Injured: None

Status report

Gourde and Cirelli did not participate in practice Friday (maintenance) but each is expected to play.

NHL.com independent correspondent George Richards contributed to this report