Florida Panthers in 0-2 hole after 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay Lightning

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers find themselves in a 0-2 Stanley Cup playoff series hole after the Tampa Bay Lightning stole the game Thursday night with a last-second third-period goal for a 2-1 victory.

With 3.9 seconds to go, Ross Colton tucked a wrist shot just under the crossbar to beat Sergei Bobrovsky and send the Lightning back to Tampa with a commanding two-game series lead.

“It was kind of tough,” Bobrovsky said. “He (Nikita Kucherov) was behind the net and he made a good pass and it was a good shot.”

The Panthers came out of the gate hot, generating chances and laying the body. Through the first five minutes of the game, Florida led 4-0 in shots and did not let Tampa Bay get anything going. That was until Brandon Montour took a tripping penalty with 8:31 to go in the first period.

Lightning pick looks good: Why the Tampa Bay Lightning will beat the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs

Panthers pick not so good: Why the Florida Panthers will beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Lightning were 3-6 on the power play in Game 1 and they got right back to work in Game 2. It took just 37 seconds for Corey Perry to deflect a Steven Stamkos shot past Bobrovsky to put Tampa Bay in the lead.

Eetu Luostarinen finally broke the ice for Florida with 1:53 to go in the second period, unloading a slap shot that dribbled past Vasilevskiy to tie the game. The Panthers then headed to the power play just over a minute later, taking 1:14 of power play time into the third period after failing to convert.

The third would bare a similar story, with the Lightning not allowing Florida into the offensive zone during the power play. The Panthers - now 0-25 on the power play during the postseason - dominated possession from there on out, but it was the Lightning who would break through.

On the game-winning goal, Colton was left all alone and Kucherov sent him a no-look feed from behind the net.

“Obviously everybody is disappointed, it was quiet, but all of the guys are pros and everybody understands that next game is a big one,” Bobrovsky said. “We can make a difference in the future, not in the past, so we’ll have to stay together and keep working towards it.”

Here are three takeaways from Game 2:

Panthers continue to get too fancy on the power play

Florida’s power play has been the story of its playoff run. After getting four opportunities during their Game 2 loss, the Panthers are now 0-25 with the man advantage.

There are many reasons for this, but the main one has stayed the same throughout the playoffs – they consistently try to make too many passes and pass up on quality shot opportunities.

The power play showed more life in the third period when the Panthers opted to roll out their five-forward unit, replacing Aaron Ekblad with Anthony Duclair as they do when they are looking for urgency, and registering three shots in 3:14 of power-play time.

“I like their urgency,” Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “They’re squeezing it, it’s really unbelievable, but I like the urgency. We had some looks, but it was better and it was a great opportunity to capitalize there.”

Still, winning in the playoffs without scoring on the power play is near impossible. The Panthers need to continue to show that urgency and get more pucks to the net if they want to survive.

Andrei Vasilevskiy continues to haunt Florida

During the regular season, the Panthers were only held to one goal four times. Vasilevskiy already did that to them twice during this postseason, stopping 69 of the 71 shots he faced so far in round 2.

Time and time again, he came up with a big save while snuffing out all rebounds that came his way – eliminating the second-chance opportunities that Florida loved to score on during the regular season.

Even when Bobrovsky was making big saves to keep the Panthers in the game, Vasilevskiy came back around with even better saves and it helped the Lightning break it open late.

“Both goaltenders were great,” Brunette said. “I thought it was a great hockey game. A lot of intensity, both teams played hard, goaltending was great, and they got one at the end.”

Sergei Bobrovsky is giving it all he has

After a rough series against the Lightning last year and two late power play goals that spoiled his numbers in Game 1, Bobrovsky came up huge for the Panthers in Game 2 and gave it all he had to keep them in this game.

Bobrovsky made 27 saves on 29 shots, including a sprawling glove save on an Ondrej Palat one-timer with 4:02 to go to keep the game tied.

Still, he has come a long way from last postseason, where he posted a 1-2-0 record with a .841 save percentage and 5.33 GAA. His play this postseason has given the Panthers a lot of confidence moving forward with their attention now on coming back from this 0-2 hole.

“He’s been great all playoffs and we feel good with that,” Brunette said. “We just have to just go back to work and try to find a way to win a hockey game.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers in 0-2 hole after 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay Lightning