The Florida Panthers failed to eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, falling to their cross-state rival by a 6-3 count in a sloppy performance at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida’s inability to stay out of the penalty box in Game 4 loomed large as they surrendered a pair of power-play goals and allowed two goals while playing 4-on-4. The undisciplined Cats also gave a shorthanded goal.
After killing off the Lightning first power-play, a high-sticking call on Dmitry Kulikov gave Tampa Bay a second chance that they converted 8:54 into the first period. Sergei Bobrovsky made a couple of big saves, but the rebounds kept going to the Lightning, who finally broke through when Brandon Hagel fed Brayden Point in front and he dished a crafty backhand pass to Steven Stamkos, who drilled in his fourth of the series from the lower left circle.
The Lightning doubled the lead 3:15 later with the Panthers up a man. Hagel went the other way after at takeaway by Victor Hedman and launched a wrist shot that eluded Bobrovsky.
Bobrovsky would misplay the next Lightning goal, a wraparound by Point, by selling out short-side, leaving him no chance as Point rounded the net to easily deposit the puck over the goal line at 15:07. Nikita Kucherov and Hedman were credited with the assists.
Carter Verhaeghe would get the Panthers on the board 4:17 into second period after Anton Lundell sent the puck down the boards to Matthew Tkachuk behind the net. Tkachuk quicky fed Verhaeghe in front and he lifted the puck over Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Tampa Bay would restore the three-goal lead at 9:40 with the teams skating at four-on-four again. Mikhail Sergachev carried into the Florida zone as the Lightning went on a 4-on-2 rush with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart caught deep in the other end. Sergachev crossed to Hagel and he whipped a wrister past Bobrovsky for the first multi-goal game of his postseason career. Anthony Cirelli picked up the secondary assist on the play. Huge goal…
Undeterred, he Panthers went back to work and quickly replied when a determined Reinhart went to the backhand to score after being stopped by Vasilevskiy. A diving Brandon Montour whacked at the rebound of the initial shot to keep the play alive and Matthew Tkachuk drew the secondary assist on the power-play marker which came at the 11:10 mark. Reinhart set a new franchise record with his 60th combined goal of the season.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson would pull the Cats within one 3:23 later, staking into open space to take a languid cross from Evan Rodrigues and beating Vasilevskiy with a wrister from the left circle for his first playoff goal since 2020. Eetu Luostarinen headmanned off the boards to Rodrigues to get the second assist. The assists were the first point of the series for Rodrigues and Luostarinen.
The Panthers had a chance to even the score early in the third, but Reinhart caught iron and as the period wore on the Lightning clamped down on Florida’s ability to create offense before Stamkos struck the decisive blow with a perfectly-placed snap shot from the left circle at 9:34, from Kucherov and Point.
After Steven Lorentz solved Vasilevskiy, but not the far post, the Lightning would go on to complete the scoring 5-on-3 at 16:22 with Nick Paul getting the game’s final goal and Kucherov and Hedman each booking their third assists of the night.
An uncharcteristic game for the Panthers, who looked out of synch to start, took too many penalties, made too many mistakes, and dug themselves too big a whole to completely climb out of. It would’ve been one thing to lose while playing their game, but that was not the postseason Panthers we’ve gotten used to seeing. Game 5 is Monday at Amerant Bank Arena. I’d expect a return to form from Bobrovsky and the rest of Paul Maurice’s charges.