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The series is tied 1-1. Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is
set for Sunday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New
York.
Smith and Bjugstad each had one goal and one assist. The
37-year-old Luongo, who looked bad in allowing five goals in a
loss to the Islanders on Thursday, was sharp 24 hours later with
41 saves.
Luongo's career playoff record is 33-32.
Thomas Greiss, who entered Friday 2-0 against Florida this
season, took the loss. He had 28 saves.
Islanders star John Tavares, who had one goal and two assists on
Thursday, scored with 3:33 left in the third period, spoiling
Luongo's attempt at what would have been his sixth career
playoff shutout.
But Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov scored an empty-net goal
with 9.3 seconds to put the game away.
For the second night in a row, Florida struck first, this time
with 4:32 elapsed in the first period. Greiss allowed a big
rebound off a shot by Bjugstad, and Smith cleaned it up for his
third goal of the playoffs.
Those two combined again to put Florida up 2-0 with 6:17 elapsed
in the second period. Smith, working behind the Islanders net,
set up Bjugstad, who buried his opportunity from the slot.
That was all the scoring Florida needed as Luongo and the
defense did the rest.
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