The Florida Panthers finished the 2024-25 regular season with a thud, falling 5-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in their season finale at Amalie Arena.
Panther-killer Brayden Point scored a goal and added two assists and Art Ross-winner Nikita Kucherov had a goal and a helper for the black-clad Lightning, who despite the easy victory, will have to settle for second place in the Atlantic Division after Toronto clinched the top spot with a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
An untimely tumble by Seth Jones allowed Anthony Cirelli to set up Jake Guentzel for a shorthanded strike with 1:51 remaining in the first period. That goal made it 3-0, and essentially ended any chance Florida had of winning what was a meaningless game for them.
Conor Geekie and Darren Raddysh also beat Vitek Vanecek, who finished with 21 saves. Raddysh’s goal came with the home team enjoying a 5-on-3 advantage, thanks to a mtach penalty on Jesse Puljujärvi and a minor on Niko Mikkola.
Brad Marchand was the only Panther able to solve Andrei Vasilevskiy. After receiving a knifing lead pass from Carter Verhaeghe, Marchand chose to shoot on a 2-on-1 break with Sam Bennett, and put the puck just inside the near post 5:36 into the middle frame for his second goal with his new team. The second assist went to Matt Kiersted. It was his first NHL point since December 19, 2022.
Not much to say about this one, as the game unfolded pretty much as expected, given the Panthers were missing the likes of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling. Point scored 1:32 in to put the Cats behind the eight-ball and then the goals from Geekie and Guentzel 2:44 apart late in the first deepened the hole.
The teams will do battle in the postseason for the fourth time in the last five seasons, starting Tuesday in Tampa. Should be a doozy.
Nuts & Bolts
- By virtue of dropping their last two games, the Panthers just missed on posting the fourth 100-point season in franchise history. They ended the campaign with 98 points, which is the fourth-highest total (tied with the 1999-00 season) ever put forth by a Florida team.
- Nikita Kucherov leads the league in scoring with 121 points on 37 goals and 84 assists. He reached 120 points for the third time in his career when he easily finished off a pass from Yanni Gourde 4:42 into the second period. Gourde also set up Brayden Point’s goal.
- Most of the season was a struggle, but Carter Verhaeghe finished strong by producing three goals and three assists in his last five games played. Verhaeghe’s 53 points was the fourth-most on the club behind Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
- Victor Hedman had two helpers to reach the 50-assist mark for the fourth time in his illustrious career.
- Mackie Samoskevich, Niko Mikkola and Seth Jones had three shots on goal apiece to lead the Panthers.
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