FLORIDA PANTHERS vs. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
MAY 10, 2021
BB&T Center – Sunrise, Fla.
| FLORIDA PANTHERS | TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING |
| 4 | 0 |
- The Panthers completed the 2020-21 season with a record of 37-14-5 (79 points, .705 points percentage) and a home record of 20-5-3, earning the second seed in the Central Division for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Cats will have home-ice advantage in their first round matchup against Tampa Bay.
- Florida’s .705 regular season points percentage is their highest in franchise history. They finished their regular season on a six-game win streak, matching their season-high from March 27-April 4.
- Florida finished their regular-season series against TBL with a record of 5-2-1, outscoring the Lightning 9-1 in their final two matchups at BB&T Center.
- Chris Driedger posted his third shutout of the season, stopping all 30 TBL shots. Driedger is the eighth goaltender in franchise history to post at least three shutouts in a season with the club. Driedger completed his 2020-21 campaign with a 14-6-3 record.
- Driedgerbecame the fourth goaltender in franchise history to register a shutout in the club’s final game of the regular season, joining James Reimer (April 9, 2017 at WSH), Tomas Vokoun (April 9, 2011) and Roberto Luongo (April 7, 2001).
- MacKenzie Weegar scored his sixth goal of the season, extending his point streak to three games (2-2-4). Weegar finished the 2020-21 regular season with a career-high 36 points (6-30-36).
- Juho Lammikko recorded his first career shorthanded goal and added an assist for his first multi-point game of his career.
- Alex Wennberg scored his career-high 17th goal of the season. He has amassed four goals over his past two games (4-0-4). He completed the 2020-21 season with 29 points (17-12-29) and played in all 56 games.
- In his first game back after missing 13 games with an injury, Carter Verhaeghe tallied his 18th goal of the season. Verhaeghe finished his second NHL season with 36 points (18-18-36) in 42 games.
- Keith Yandle notched an assist, his 600th career NHL point. Yandle became the 10th U.S.-born defenseman in NHL history to reach this milestone and the first from Massachusetts. He recorded 27 points (3-24-27) and played in all 56 regular season games.
- Mason Marchment notched an assist for his 10th point (2-8-10) of the season.
- Anthony Duclair notched an assist, posting 32 points (10-22-32) over 43 games played in 2020-21.
- Aleksander Barkov produced his 32nd assist of the season, completing the season as Florida’s goals leader (26), ranking second in points (26-32-58).
- Radko Gudas registered an assist and logged 11 hits, finishing the season with 11 points (2-9-11) and leading all NHL defensemen in hits (250).
- Nine different Panthers recorded at least one point.
PANTHERS POSTGAME QUOTES – MAY 10, 2021
Head Coach Joel Quenneville
“The guys played well right to the end. We did a lot of good things again tonight, I thought Driegs [goaltender Chris Driedger] was special in the net. It was one of those games coming off a layoff like that, coming up with a game like that was outstanding.”
“(The playoffs are) a fresh start, it’s a whole new ballgame. We should be excited about the way the season went for us in a lot of ways. I thought we got a lot of guys included in our team game. Got some depth over the course of the season, but this is what we played for. It’s been a special year.”
“At the beginning of the year there was some accountability amongst the players, pushing each other in a real good way. I think competitiveness to get quality ice time, staying in the lineup. We have several options as far as who can play. We welcome tough decisions, but its been something all year that we’ve been shooting for, and I thought we made giant strides over the course of the year from last year to this year. But it doesn’t matter. It’s what we do now going forward.”
Forward Anthony Duclair
“I think we did great these last two games, obviously chippy and emotional games heading to the playoffs. We stick up for each other, we’ve been doing it all year and it’s not going to chance. It’s nice to see different guys step up in and out of the lineup.”
“It’s not our first time playing these types of games. We know how to handle ourselves, we’ve got an unbelievable leadership group in our locker room. Credit to them since the beginning of the year to keep us not too high and not too low, whatever happens we want to stay humble as a team. That’s just our motto right now.”
“Every game was important, we’ve been saying that for the past month or so. For these last two games, for the boys to come out the way they did, just to gain home ice advantage in the first round is huge. We know how important that is come playoff time, so we’re really excited and we’re looking forward to it.”
Goaltender Chris Driedger
“The guys played fantastic defensively tonight. I felt good, I was seeing the puck. Couple breakaways that I just felt solid on, had good depth. But overall just an incredible effort by the guys.”
“It was good to rest up and I was feeling good. When you have a bit of time off like that you come back mentally pretty fresh. I felt good out there.”
“There’s just an incredible energy in the room right now, guys feel great. We’ve had a ton of fun. Closing the season off like that is as good as you could ask for, especially against these guys. Those were two really good playoff hockey games.”
“I can’t really put into words how excited we are (to have home ice advantage). It’s been a topic of conversation pretty much non-stop at the rink. Our fans have been incredible all season. It was loud in there tonight. It was really great to see fans come out like that and make that much noise…When we double (capacity) it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Forward Juho Lammikko
“I think the whole team played a really good game, it was easy to jump in today and just try to play my game. Good to get one goal there but it was a fun game to play in.”
“Just try to keep going and doing the same things and keep moving forward. It doesn’t really matter what happened here. Just try to improve the game and keep going forward.”
“I think it’s huge (to have home ice advantage) and its fun to start here. It’s really nice.”
