Lightning Taking Extreme Measures To Keep Strong Home-Ice Advantage

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Lightning are doing whatever it takes to make Amalie Arena a difficult place for opponents to play.

That includes taking some extreme measures, in some instances alienating fans and penalizing others.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that, in an effort to maximize their home-ice advantage these playoffs, the Lightning aren't selling tickets to non-Florida residents.

They are also prohibiting fans from wearing opposing teams' jerseys in certain sections of the arena.

"We're not going to apologize for the policy," Bill Wickett, the Lightning's executive vice president for communications, told the newspaper. "We want to create as much of a hometown environment for the Lightning players and our season-ticket holders as we can, and we've been somewhat successful at it."

After defeating the Rangers in overtime on Wednesday night, the Lightning hold a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference finals after dropping Game 1 at Madison Square Garden last week.

"We've taken several calls, emails and social media posts from Lightning fans that are outside Florida," Wickett told The Times. "If they reach out to us and we have a conversation with them, we have no problem selling them tickets.

"We understand some general hockey fans don't like it, but the Lightning team and Lightning fans need to come first. We wanted to do anything we could to make sure the building is blue and fans inside are Lightning fans."

Game 4 of this high-scoring series is set for Friday night in Tampa. The puck will drop at 8:00 p.m.

The winner of this series will take on the winner of the Ducks-Blackhawks series in the Stanley Cup Final.