Panthers Advance to Second Round of Playoffs, Defeat Lightning in Five Games

TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida Panthers advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive season after taking down the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games of their first round series.

Sam Bennett scored the game winner, Sergei Bobrovsky had 26 saves and the Panthers defeated the Lightning 6-3 in the series clinching Game 5 on Wednesday night at Amalie Arena.

The Panthers and Lightning have met in the playoffs four of the past five seasons. Tampa won their first two matchups (2021 & 2022), while Florida won their two most recent series (2024 & 2025).

“Every year it just keeps getting harder and harder,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said of the rivalry with Tampa. “They’ve won cups, and they’ve been in the finals. They know what it takes and now we’ve done the same thing… It [was] a really hard series last year and this year [was] even harder. Just happy that we won this year.”

Lightning forward Gage Gonclaves opened the scoring 2:33 into the first period after he put away a rebound for his first career playoff goal. This was the first time in the series where Lightning scored the first goal of the game.

On the first power play of the night, the Panthers quickly responded to tie the game. At the 5:21 mark of the first, after a Matthew Tkachuk point shot ended up in front of goal, Carter Verhaeghe spun around to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the postseason.

Trade deadline acquisition Brad Marchand continues to impress on the Panthers third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. Linking up on the opening goal in Game 4, the young Finns and 36-year-old Marchand connected again in Game 4. Marchand danced around the Lightning zone before firing a net-front pass to Lundell, who tilted his skate — but without kicking motion — to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

”You have a goal every round and it’s to play at your best and take control of moments and be big when opportunities present themselves like tonight,” Marchand said postgame. “There’s so much experience in this room, a lot of guys that have been there, been through it and realizing the importance of closing that series when you have that opportunity.

“The guys did a great job, even when they scored early. You could sit back but we didn’t. We just continued to push and get better as the game went on.”

In a seesaw first period, Nick Paul had the final of four goals in the opening frame. With 8:34 to go in the period, Paul beat Bobrovsky with a top-shelf snipe from the slot to tie the game at 2-2. turn to get on the scoresheet

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov reclaimed the lead just 58 seconds into the second, putting his team up 3-2 after deflecting in a point-shot from Gustav Forsling.

Jake Guentzel tied the game on the power-play with his third goal of the series 9:57 into the second.

With 4:47 to go in the second period, once again, the Panthers retook the lead. After killing off a penalty, Sam Bennett — who was fresh out of the box — beat Vasilevskiy with a shot off the rush to put the Panthers up 4-3.

“It’s not a good feeling being in the box twice there, especially after they scored one,” Bennett spoke of the penalty he served before his eventual game-winning goal. “[I was] a little anxious in the box there but luckily was able to come out, and Lundy (Lundell) made a great play to find me and I was able to put it in.”

Luostarinen doubled the Panthers lead with 6:58 to go in the third after Marchand  made a great play to reach a loose puck and feed him a backdoor pass, making it 5-3. Luostarinen finished the night with a game-high four points (1-3-4).

“A little insurance there for sure,” Luostarinen said of his goal. “It felt good to get on the board. I think we had six minutes left; we knew we had to play like we did and just seal the deal.”

Sam Reinhart put away an empty-netter with 4:24 left to ice the game at 6-3.

For their second round opponent, Florida awaits the winner of the Toronto Maple Leafs – Ottawa Senators series. Toronto currently holds a 3-2 lead over Ottawa, with Game 6 on Thursday night in Kanata, ON.