Sunrise, FL. – The Florida Panthers secured revenge.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had eliminated his Florida Panthers from the NHL playoffs in each of their previous three meetings, and if the Panthers wanted to cement themselves as one of the NHL’s best, this year’s result needed to be different.
The Florida Panthers finally got over the hump by eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 6-1 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena.
“When there’s one team that always kind of beats you in the playoffs, both times in kind of similar situation where we have the home-ice advantage and both times they beat us, you want to beat them,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “You want to get over that hump. Big respect to them. They’ve been unbelievable the past few years, making the Finals and winning those Cups. There’s a lot to learn from that team and organization.”
Now that they’ve moved past their rival, the goal is to reach the same heights they did. The Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021.
Barkov and Carter Verhaege each had two goals and an assist to go along with 31 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.
Florida’s six goals are the most in a series-clinching game in franchise history.
Eighteen different Panthers notched at least one point in the series. Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk each tallied nine points in the series.
Now, the Panthers wait.
With the Panthers set to face either the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 2, Boston currently holds a 3-1 series lead over Toronto and will try to close things out in Game 5 on Tuesday.
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