The Backcheck: Bolts drop Game 1 of the Round 1 cross-state rivalry
The Tampa Bay Lightning opened Round One of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers Sunday afternoon at Amerant Bank Arena. Following a quick start to the game for the home team, Sam Reinhart opened the scoring at the 6:17 mark of the first period to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. After Gustav Forsling took a pass from Aleksander Barkov, the Florida defenseman sifted a shot towards the net that was redirected by Reinhart and past Andrei Vasilevskiy for the first goal of the series.
