The Florida Panthers won the battle of quick strikes on Monday night, moving them within one victory of winning their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the process.
Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones scored 11 seconds apart late in the third period for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who turned a one-goal deficit into a 4-2 victory in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena. Instead of heading back to Tampa with the best-of-7 series tied at two wins each, the Panthers will take the ice at Amalie Arena on Wednesday night with a 3-1 series lead and the opportunity to send their in-state rivals home for the summer by winning Game 5.
Ekblad tied the game 2-2 with 3:47 remaining when he chipped the rebound of Sam Reinhart’s shot from the right point past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Before the Lightning could regroup, Florida went ahead when Jones’ shot caromed off Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh and through a couple of bodies before getting past Vasilevskiy with 3:36 remaining. It was the fastest two goals by defensemen on one team in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
Carter Verhaeghe’s empty-netter with 1:40 remaining capped Florida’s stunning comeback and left the Lightning reeling.
“We were four minutes away from being 2-2 [in the series] and there were two quick goals,” Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman said. “It’s frustrating. But we knew we needed to win three of the last four, so, now it comes down to winning the last three.”
The irony was that Tampa Bay’s two goals also came in a span of 11 seconds.
After Anton Lundell put Florida ahead 1-0 at 9:06 of the second period, the Lightning tied it when Mitchell Chafee pumped a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky at 12:21. Tampa Bay then won the face-off and grabbed a 2-1 lead when veteran defenseman Erik Cernak scored his third goal in 83 career Stanley Cup Playoff games at 12:32.
The Panthers continued their physical style of play; all 18 skaters were credited with at least one hit and they finished with 45. Niko Mikkola led them with eight despite being assessed a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct 19 seconds into the third period after driving Lightning defenseman Zemgus Girgensons into the boards while he was on his knees.
“We haven’t had a lot of these this year,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They have been grinders. It has been tough. We had key guys out of the lineup … so, we don’t have the history of the comeback and that’s a little tougher. It was really important mentally to come back.”
3 takeaways from Panthers’ 4-2 win against Lightning in Game 4
1. Ekblad’s heroics come after disputed non-call
Lightning coach Jon Cooper went ballistic midway through the second period when no penalty was called against Ekblad for a hit that wound up knocking Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel out of the game. Hagel, who returned after sitting out a one-game suspension resulting from a major penalty for interference in Game 2, was flattened by Ekblad along the boards with a hit to the chin. He went straight to the locker room and didn’t return — but no penalty was called, much to the consternation of the Lightning and their coach.
EKKY FOUND THE REBOUND!!! pic.twitter.com/7z63S3aoKk
— x – Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) April 29, 2025
The non-call sparked the Lightning, who wasted little time tying and then taking the lead with two goals in 11 seconds.
Ekblad also appeared to tie the game with a power-play goal 7:02 into the third period, but the Lightning challenged for offside and the goal was waved off. However, he tied the game for real a little more than nine minutes later – a goal that the Lightning felt he should never been on the ice to score.
Though no penalty was called, expect the NHL Department of Player Safety to take a good look at Ekblad’s hit — and don’t be surprised if he earns a suspension for Game 5.
2. Power-play struggles, other failures cost Lightning
The Lightning led 2-1 and had the chance to put the game away after Mikkola’s major penalty early in the third period gave them a five-minute power play. But Tampa Bay’s power play, which finished fifth in the League during the regular season, didn’t even get a shot on goal before Brayden Point took a high-sticking penalty with seven seconds left in Mikkola’s major.
Tampa Bay finished 0-for 2 with the man-advantage and is 1-for-15 on the power play through four games, including 0-for-12 in the past three games.
The Lightning also paid a big price for little mistakes. The failure to win a puck battle in the right-wing corner led to Lundell’s game-opening goal. More damaging was the blown coverage by Jake Guentzel, who left Ekblad alone in front of the net to put the rebound of Reinhart’s rebound behind Vasilevskiy.
3. Pressure on the Lightning
Tampa Bay is one loss away from its second straight five-game loss in the first round to its biggest rival after what has to be one of its most painful playoff losses ever.
But while last year’s loss came after Panthers won the Atlantic Division and the Bolts were a wild-card team, the circumstances are different this year. This time, the second-place Lightning had the home-ice advantage against the third-place Panthers, only to have Florida win the first two games in Tampa.
Teams that trail 3-1 in a best-of-7 series have come back to win just 9.2 percent of the time (32 of 348). The Lightning still have much of the core of the teams that won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 and made the Final in 2022. They need players like Vasilevskiy, Hedman and NHL scoring champion Nikita Kucherov to step up their games before it’s too late.
“It was tough losing the first two at home,” Cooper said, “so we have massive challenges ahead of us.”
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