Krenn: Three Things we learned from grabbing the series lead

That's one.
The Tampa Bay Lightning opened their second-round series against the Florida Panthers with a big 4-1 win at FLA Live Arena on Tuesday night.

After falling behind 1-0 with 5:59 left in the first period, the Bolts showed no panic. Tampa Bay went into the locker room after 20 minutes trailing by one, but got the game tied up with 2:38 remaining in the second period, courtesy of Corey Perry.
Perry's third goal of the postseason came on the power play off of an absolutely gorgeous assist from Nikita Kucherov, who danced around Aaron Ekblad before feeding Perry on the back door for an easy tap-in with the net wide open.
It was Kucherov who earned the power-play opportunity for the Lightning after he showed off his soft hands with a move around MacKenzie Weegar, who had no choice but to hook Kucherov to prevent a scoring chance.
The power-play goal by Perry sent both teams into the intermission with the game knotted at one. From there, the Lightning took control.
Tampa Bay outshot Florida 18-10 in the third period and it all began with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scoring what would end up being the game-winning goal just 3:35 into the third and final frame.
After Bellemare won an offensive zone faceoff back to Perry, who was waiting at the top of the right circle, Perry fired a shot at Sergei Bobrovsky, who made the initial pad save, but Bellemare was right there at the doorstep to grab the rebound and fire it on net in the blink of an eye.
Bellemare's shot beat Bobrovsky on the glove side and gave the Bolts their first lead of the game.
"It's fun to be able to help the team offensively at times," Bellemare said. "My goal was kind of just a simple play. It's more credit to the coach to put us in an offensive faceoff."
The Panthers thought they tied the game with 8:05 left in the third with what they believed to be a power-play goal. Ryan McDonagh was in the penalty box after an interference call that probably should never have been called.
With the puck in mid-air, Noel Acciari looked skyward and caught the puck in his glove. Right after the puck landed in Acciari's glove, McDonagh laid a huge hit on the Panthers forward, but the officials apparently thought the Tampa Bay defenseman arrived too early and sent him off for interference.
While on the power play, Aleksander Barkov fired a shot from the point that was deflected over the Bolts net. The puck cleared the glass behind Andrei Vasilevskiy, went off the netting, and should have resulted in a whistle. The officials missed the puck hitting the netting and after it landed back on the ice, Anthony Duclair fired it into the back of the net.
Fortunately, the Lightning were able to challenge the goal and video review revealed the puck hitting the netting and overturned the call on the ice of a good goal.
No team has been better at coming from behind this season than the Panthers. The Lightning were not going to let that happen to them on Tuesday night.
Gustav Forsling caught Alex Killorn up high with 4:51 remaining in the third period and was sent to the box for roughing. It took 45 seconds worth of power-play time for Kucherov to make Florida pay.
Kucherov took the puck on the half-wall and patiently scanned the entirety of the offensive zone. With the Panthers applying no pressure on the Tampa Bay winger, Kucherov skated downhill from the top of the right circle down to the faceoff dot and ripped a wrist shot past Bobrovsky, who was screened by Anthony Cirelli, and gave the Bolts a 3-1 lead with 4:06 remaining.
The Panthers challenged for goaltender interference after Cirelli's backside appeared to make contact with the head of Bobrovsky. However, the contact was incidental and it was made outside of the crease, so the goal was upheld and the Lightning went back to the power play as a result of Florida's unsuccessful challenge.
The Bolts added some extra insurance with their third power-play goal of the game with 2:16 remaining. It was Ross Colton who capitalized for the Lightning with the man advantage, scoring his team-leading fourth goal of the postseason.
With the secondary assist on Colton's goal, Mikhail Sergachev recorded his 23rd career playoff point to pass Dan Boyle and take sole possession of second place on the Lightning's all-time playoff scoring leader list for defensemen.
It was a big road win to kick off the second round for Tampa Bay, who is now 3-1 all-time in Sunrise in the playoffs after going 2-1 on the road during the team's 2021 First Round series.
The goal in the two-game road split in the postseason is to win at least one game. The Lightning accomplished that tonight. Here's three things we learned in that win.

1. KUCH BEING KUCH
When he's on, he's on.
The game completely changed for the Lightning when Kucherov crossed up Weegar and forced the Florida defenseman to take a penalty late in the second period. From that moment on, it was Kucherov's night.
The move Kucherov made on Ekblad before feeding Perry was just filthy. After Kucherov crossed over the Panthers blue line on the left side, Ekblad reached for a poke check before Tampa Bay's star winger shifted direction on the inside edge of his right skate and fed Perry on the back door for one of the easiest goals he'll score in his entire career.
It was just another example of the magic Kucherov can display when he's on his game, fooling everyone on the ice.
"Yeah that was…effortless," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "I've always said about Kuch, he knows what the guy he's going against is going to do before they do.
"He made that one look easy."
It was Perry's third goal of the postseason, tied with Kucherov and Ondrej Palat for the second-most on Tampa Bay's roster this postseason.
"That's a world class play," said Perry. "It's a hell of a play.
"Inside-out on the D-man, slides it over, and I think the goalie was in the corner.
"I just shake my head. Like I said, I shake my head sometimes."
When Kucherov is going, there aren't too many players in the NHL that are more unstoppable than he is. He can simply take over a game with his skill. As Cooper said, he looks like he knows what his opponent is going to do before he even does it.
It was the 90th career playoff assist for Kucherov, who remains the Lightning's all-time leader for playoff assists, scoring (137 pts.) and power-play scoring (60 PP pts.).
"He can carry us into the fight a little bit and make everybody around him better," said McDonagh. "He likes to do it on his own at times too and try to take over in his ways. Obviously an all-world play on the setup there to Perrs to get us on the board there.
"We've seen it time and time again. The guy just loves playing playoff hockey and stepping up for our team when we need him."
With Point out on Tuesday night, Tampa Bay certainly needed Kucherov. He answered with two points (1G, 1A) for his fourth multi-point game this postseason and 40th of his career, the most among all NHL players since he made his postseason debut in 2014.
Kucherov became just the third active player to record at least 40 multi-point games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, joining Sidney Crosby (67 GP) and Evgeni Malkin (53 GP).
His 10 points (3G, 7A) this postseason lead all Lightning skaters and he is now up to 13 points (4G, 9A) in seven career playoff games against the Panthers.

2. LOCKING IT DOWN
We've said it time and time again. Cooper's plan for success revolves around prioritizing defending.
Over the last three playoff games, the Bolts are 3-0 and have allowed just five goals during that span. After Tampa Bay got the lead in the third period, they suffocated the Panthers, who have been the best team in the NHL at coming back to win games this season.
If you want to win in the playoffs, you have to hold onto leads when you get them. As of late, the Bolts have done well in that regard.
It was a group effort from the Lightning, who were blocking shots, winning battles, and clogging the neutral zone. When Florida got shots through, Vasilevskiy was there to close the door.
"It's the saves you make in the biggest times and Vas seems to do that," Cooper said. "I know in the Toronto series he gave up more than he wants at times, but look at the saves he makes at the times we need them.
"That's what great goaltenders do.
"They give you a chance to win a hockey game and that's what our guy did again tonight."
He's done it time and time again. Vasilevskiy has been lights out for Tampa Bay over the years. Is there a better goalie on Earth? I'm not sure there is.
"Vasy's always there and he's our best player, playoffs and regular season," said Kucherov. "He brings 100% effort every single game and everybody's trying to just take his energy and bring it to their game.
"He's a leader and when he makes those saves, the bench is fired up and everybody gets excited. He's our best player."
Some may not have thought of Vasilevskiy as a leader in the locker room, but it's his energy and commitment to being the best that makes him so easy to follow.
"He was just steady the whole game," McDonagh said. "He's so dialed in with his preparation, his focus. We try and do as best a job we can in front of him, letting him see the puck.
"We're trying to take a little bit more emphasis on shot blocking and taking pride and being tough to play against in front of our net, not allowing those second and third whacks at it.
"I think we're all just feeding off of his energy, his focus, and his determination on never giving up on the puck."
The Lightning have blocked a lot of shots over the past two games and that's been led by McDonagh. With five blocked shots tonight, McDonagh is now up to 387 career blocked shots in the playoffs, passing Dan Girardi for the most all-time in NHL postseason history.
"It's commitment and we talk about the guys, you've got to have the passion to win a hockey game and you've got to be committed," Cooper explained. "Go down the list. Foote's block, Sergachev's block, Cernak's block, Killer's block. You've just got to go down the list of this.
"I found out tonight that McDonagh's the all-time leading playoff shot blocker and that's commitment. You need that to win a game.
"The goaltender will tell you that and that's what's clearly helped us out here the last couple games."
It's been talked about and with two consecutive Stanley Cup victories, it's pretty obvious. The Lightning just know what it takes to win in the playoffs. Tonight, they showed that. A lot of it starts in the defensive end and preventing goals.
"Well, it starts in our own zone and that's how we're going to be effective," Perry said. "That's how we'll have a chance to win.
"That third period, guys blocked shots. We played North. We got the puck out. We didn't turn the puck over. We clogged the middle of the ice.
"It's a system that's worked and we continue to put that plan in place and we just have to go out and execute it."

3. TOTAL TEAM EFFORT
It takes everyone.
There was a lot of special teams play in the opening-round series against Toronto. Because of that, some players didn't get a ton of ice time.
Some members of the media questioned why certain players weren't getting more ice time.
But it was never anything to worry about in the Lightning locker room. Players know that it takes a team effort to win in the playoffs. Roles will change each game. Ice time will change by the night.
Cooper explained it perfectly following Tampa Bay's Game 1 win.
"Every single night we dress 20 NHL hockey players and they all contribute in different ways," Cooper said. "They understand from game to game or roles, things may change, but everybody knows we don't win without each other.
"I think we have a pretty selfless group in the sense that some guys know they may get eight to 10 minutes a night. Some guys know they're going to get 22.
"It's when you're out there, what do you do with that time and when you're on the bench, what are you doing? Are you lifting the group up? We have a really good group in that regard.
"As for tonight, we go with 11 forwards. Guys, naturally, are to get some more ice, but we trust those guys. They showed their worth tonight.
"I know at times in the Toronto series it didn't feel like it, but there was also just a monstrous amount of penalties and special teams in that. I think that's what makes our group special is everybody's pulling for each other when they get an opportunity, and they pull through for you."
With Point out, the Bolts went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. There were going to be enhanced opportunities for other players. But did the Lightning feel like they needed to lean on a player like Kucherov with Point absent from the lineup?
Not necessarily.
As Cooper has stressed in the past, it's a team game. It's not about one guy. It's about the group.
"I think it's unfair to put anything on one player and say, 'Oh this guy has to step up or this guy has to step up,'" Cooper explained. "Team. This is a team game.
"Coaches have to step up. Everybody does and that's what you do.
"I've never seen you start a year with 20 guys and those are the only 20 guys who play. Your organization has to be deep. Everybody has to be on the same page.
"Does it help when your marquee guys have the games they do? For sure. But those guys only play 20 of the 60.
"Everybody else has got to play minutes too and I think it's just a collaborative effort here that is getting us as far as we are right now."
Who knows what the ice time will look like in Game 2?
What we do now is that Tampa Bay's players will be on board with the plan, regardless of what happens. This group cares about one thing and one thing only. Winning.
They'll have a chance to win again, for the fourth-straight time, on Thursday night in Sunrise at 7 p.m. ET.