Here's a sentence that has never been said: Florida leads Tampa Bay in a playoff series. And for the Panthers, that's a great way to start. Carter Verhaeghe tapped in a pinpoint pass from Aleksander Barkov for the lead 58 seconds into the third period, Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and an assist and the Panthers beat the Lightning 3-2 in Game 1 of their NHL playoff series Sunday. Barkov had two assists, Sam Reinhart also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 17 saves for the Panthers, who won a Game 1 on home ice for the first time since 1997. “Game 1 was great,” Tkachuk said, “especially being on the winning side.” Brandon Hagel and Steven Stamkos got the goals for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 stops for the Lightning, who pulled him for an extra attacker with 3:08 remaining. Tkachuk got an empty-netter 63 seconds later, and Florida soon began celebrating a 1-0 series lead. KEEP READING: https://www.wtsp.com/article/sports/nhl/lightning/ap-hkn-lightning-panthers-1st-ld-writethru/67-8a83e8a7-fbee-4128-bd2d-bd842c25f059