Lightning’s second-round home games expand to 71 percent capacity

TAMPA — As the Lightning advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the team is expanding capacity of Amalie Arena to around 71 percent for second-round games.

After receiving approval from local health and government officials, as well as the NHL, the Lightning will welcome approximately 13,500 fans for the next round, the team announced in a tweet Thursday.

The Lightning previously had met all the health and safety standards ,and made the HVAC upgrades set by the league, to seat up to 11,000 in the first round. Attendance grew gradually between the first home postseason game (9,508), the second (9,762 ) and Wednesday night’s third game (10,092).

Tampa Bay clinched a second-round berth with a 4-0 Game 6 win over the Panthers at home Wednesday. It faces the Hurricanes, who clinched the Central Division’s other first-round series with a 4-3 overtime win over the Predators in Game 6 on Thursday.

Though the season began with just three NHL teams allowing fans — the Lightning opened playing in an empty Amalie Arena — capacity has grown in the postseason throughout the United States. Fans had been unable to attend games in Canada amid the country’s slow vaccine rollout, but the Quebec government said Thursday it will allow 2,500 fans into the Bell Centre on Saturday for Game 6 of the Maple Leafs-Canadiens series, the first NHL crowd in Canada since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Carolina, which has home ice against the Lightning in Round 2, plans to increase capacity to 15,000 at PNC Arena for those games, up from 12,000 in Round 1. The Lightning lost three of their four road games against the Hurricanes this season, including two shutout losses. They were outscored 13-4 in those games.

• • •

Sign up for Lightning Strikes, a weekly newsletter from Bolts beat writer Eduardo A. Encina that brings you closer to the ice.

Never miss out on the latest with the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Florida college sports and more. Follow our Tampa Bay Times sports team on Twitter and Facebook.