Panthers advance to second round, defeat Lightning in five games

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Monday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 — taking the series in five games.

The Panthers have now made the second round for three consecutive seasons.

After a scoreless first period which saw each team finish with just seven shots on goal, the offense would finally open in the second, and the home team would get on the board first. 

45 seconds into the second, Carter Verhaeghe put away his own rebound to score his fourth goal of the series — giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

Besides Game 4, there’s been a goal within the first minute of a period in every game this series. Each team has done it twice — Verhaeghe being responsible for both of Florida’s.

The Panthers struggled on the power play in the game, but they would find some offense off their penalty kill.

While shorthanded, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov scored his first goal of the series, giving the Panthers a 2-0 lead. 

The Panthers would kill off the same penalty, however, after Sergei Bobrovsky stopped a barrage of Lightning shots, Victor Hedman would finally get the Lightning on the board with a slapshot from the point — cutting the Panthers lead to 2-1. 

Despite conceding the goal, the fans chanted “Bobby” in admiration for the effort of the Panthers goaltender.

“I just appreciate the support, they gave it to me all season long,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a privilege to play in front of them.”

After 40 minutes of play, the Panthers led 2-1 — outshooting the Lightning 22-12 in the period. 

Entering the third, the Panthers were 20 minutes away from moving onto the second round, but with the Lihgtning trailing by just a goal, the push from the visitors was to be expected. 

The final frame of regualtion was as heavy of a period as there’s been this series. Tampa finished every hit, and the Panthers followed suit. 

After 10 plus minutes of tight hockey in the third, the Panthers captain gave his team a pivotal two-goal cushion. 

Barkov scored his second goal of the night with just under nine minutes to go in the third — this was the first multi-goal game in 52 career playoff games for the Panthers captain.

“He was so good, so dominant. It was like a man playing against boys out there. ” Matthew Tkachuk said of Barkov. “That was very impressive.”

Evan Rodrigues would ice the series, scoring his first goal of the playoffs — making it 4-1 with 5:44 left in regulation.

“I thought in the third we probably played our best period of the series,” Rodrigues said. “We had a big challenge, they were gonna have a big push and  I thought it was probably the lamest we played the entire series.”

The Panthers would score twice on empty net (Verhaeghe, Mikkola) — taking the game 6-1 and the series in five games.

This is the first time that the Panthers won a series against the Lightning in the playoffs. They lost the two previous attempts (2020-21 & 2021-22) with the 2022 series being a Lightning sweep.

“You have to slay the dragons,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “You’ve got to do things that you haven’t been able to do to show forward motion in progress because there was more pressure on our team.”

Florida’s current roster has 11 guys who were on the team for the 2022 second round loss to the Lightning and nine guys who were on the team for both 2021 and 2022.

What’s Next?

Florida awaits the winner of the Boston Bruins – Toronto MapleLeafs series. Boston currently leads 3-1, with a chance to close out the series at home on Tuesday night.

The Panthers defeated both teams in the playoffs last year — taking down Boston in seven games during round one, and Toronto in five games during round 2.