A frustrating and disappointing loss for the Lightning, who are now facing elimination.

Some elements of this loss were outside of the Lightning’s control, and I’ll get to those in a moment. But there were other aspects that the Lightning have to own.

They squandered a five-minute power play early in the third when they had a 2-1 lead. They mustered only one shot on goal during the entire man advantage.

Just prior to the Panthers’ tying goal late in the third period, the Lightning committed an unforced icing. Then, after Brayden Point won the d-zone faceoff from Aleksander Barkov, the Lightning twice failed to execute a clear. And they lost coverage on Aaron Ekblad, who got open in the low slot to finish a rebound.

The Lightning also made a significant coverage error on Florida’s opening goal. The Panthers iced the puck, but the Lightning lost the race, and Brad Marchand negated the infraction. The Lightning got mixed up on coverage and left Anton Lundell open in front, where he wristed a shot from close range past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

So the Lightning have their fingerprints on this defeat, one in which they couldn’t hold a 2-1 lead with less than four minutes left.

But the Lightning also dealt with adversity that had nothing to do with how they played. Aaron Ekblad delivered a blow to Brandon Hagel’s head in the second period. The play knocked Hagel out of the game. No penalty was called on the play, Ekblad was allowed to stay in the game, and he ended up scoring the tying goal. The Lightning dressed 11 forwards, so after losing Hagel, they were down to 10 for the second half of the contest. It was a heavy left for those 10 forwards, and that may have played a role in their unforced errors at the end of the game. To state the obvious, Hagel certainly would have helped the Lightning close out this game.

Adding to the Lightning’s frustration, the winning goal resulted from a lucky bounce. Seth Jones’ point shot hit off Ryan McDonagh and caromed past Vasilevskiy.

The result took away what was a mostly solid defensive performance for the Lightning. They limited Grade-A chances for much of the night (the first two goals being the notable exceptions), and played extremely hard. It was also a game in which both teams scored goals 11 seconds apart. The Florida tallies late in the third gave the Panthers the lead. The Lightning tallied their two goals in the second period. The first came on the shift after the Ekblad hit on Hagel. It was great to see the Lightning respond in that way after watching their teammate have to leave the game.

But in the end, it wasn’t enough. The Lightning must now win on Wednesday to extend the series.

Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Braydon Coburn):

• Seth Jones — Panthers. GWG.
• Aleksander Barkov — Panthers. Assist.
• Mitchell Chaffee — Lightning. Goal.