End of the second period, even. And Tampa Bay defenseman Matt Dumba already wanted to celebrate. How could he not, he shot into the open goal. In that one, however, the home goalkeeper of Florida, Sergej Bobrovsky, starred. His interception went viral and propelled the Panthers to a 2-0 series lead.
“I was just watching from the bench, I was in shock,” Panthers linebacker Aaron Ekblad said. “It was unbelievable.”
However, Panthers coach Paul Maurice didn’t see it so well. He saw more of a deficiency and lamented that a goal was almost scored.
“I used bad language. Just foul language,” Maurice smiled. “You don’t even see that much from the substitute, you don’t have much of an overview of the corners of the goal and so on. I had no idea what was going on. Thanks to Bob, we can all laugh about it.’
What Maurice saw was Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli driving the puck into the offensive zone and Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour chasing him down. Cirelli got to the shot but missed the goal. The puck bounced off the goalpost to the other side of the goal area, where Lightning forward Nikita Kučerov was standing. Bobrovsky, trying to stop Kucherov’s shot, threw himself across the goal area.
Instead of a shot, however, Kučerov moved the puck across the goal area, where Dumba was all alone. But then…
It was the most incredible of his 21 saves. He was again the support, just like in the first game of the series. “I think he missed the goal with the first shot. I was a little behind,” Bobrovsky admitted. “It was a bit out of desperation, I tried to throw as hard as I could and I managed to do it.”
And the hall must have exploded! “Unbelievable,” Florida linebacker Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “Of course we know that he can do such interventions, but this was something else.”
Thanks to him, Florida defended home ice and took a 2-0 series lead after a 3-2 overtime win.
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