Panthers roll past Lightning in Game 5, advance to second round of Stanley Cup playoffs

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on Apr 30, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Sam Bennett had just been freed from the penalty box late in the second period Wednesday and broke for the net. It was the second time he was in the box in the frame, and the Florida Panthers lost their lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning the first time he was called for a penalty. He made up for it the second time around.

Anton Lundell, who had the puck at center ice as the penalty kill ended, sent a pass to Bennett down the right boards to start a two-on-one rush against the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Darren Raddysh. Bennett fired a wrist shot that flew past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Panthers goal. Florida lead.

Florida never looked back from there in its 6-3 win over Tampa Bay in Game 5 at Amalie Arena to clinch the first-round playoff series and continue the Panthers’ quest to defend their Stanley Cup title. It’s the second consecutive year the Panthers have eliminated their in-state rival Lightning in the first round of the playoffs, with both series ending in five games.

Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, Aleksander Barkov, Eetu Luostarinen and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida, which will play either the Toronto Maple Leafs or Ottawa Senators in the second round. Toronto leads that series 3-2, with Game 6 of that matchup on Thursday.

Luostarinen finished the game with four points, making him just the fifth player in Panthers history to log at least four points in a playoff game — joining Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Ray Shepard. The third line of Luostarinen, Lundell and Brad Marchand had nine points on Wednesday.

Gage Goncalves, Nick Paul and Jake Guentzel scored for Tampa Bay, which led 1-0 2:33 into regulation and tied the game twice after that but never played from ahead after that.

Bennett gave Florida the lead for good with his goal late in the second period before Luostarinen and Reinhart added two more goals in the third.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 29 shots, including making back-to-back stellar stops on Erik Cernak and Goncalves about five minutes into the second frame off the rush and stopping all seven shots he saw in the third period to seal the win.

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