Vasilevskiy makes 33 saves, Lightning ease past Panthers for 5th straight win

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 6-1 win against the Florida Panthers at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday.

Pontus Holmberg and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (37-14-4), who have won five straight and are 19-1-1 in their past 21 games. Nikita Kucherov had an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games (six goals, 18 assists).

"I mean 19-1-1 is kind of self-explanatory of how it's gone," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Have we been a perfect team the whole time? No. Have we played pretty well most of the time? Yes. The times that when we haven't, the goaltender has bailed us out or the penalty kill or the power play...and it's all kind of clicked for us."

All six goal scorers for the Lightning will participate in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 starting this weekend. Cooper will be the head coach of Team Canada.

"I'm walking into a Canadian Maple Leaf as soon as I get out of that door and I can't be more excited to be a part of this," Cooper said. "I can't thank my coaching staff enough for how much they've helped out with everything to allow me to have time to do other things and work with Team Canada. This is the chance of a lifetime. I'm going to go over there and give it my all and enjoy every minute of it."

Mackie Samoskevich scored for the Panthers (29-25-3), who have lost five of their past six.

Daniil Tarasov allowed five goals on 25 shots before leaving with an undisclosed injury at 6:09 of the third period. He was replaced by Sergei Bobrovsky, who made two saves in relief.

"We've got to start playing playoff hockey now and I think that's a good thing for us," Samoskevich said. "For us to get to where we want to go we're going to have to play that game. It's going to be a challenge, but I think we can do it."

Florida coach Paul Maurice was assessed a game misconduct at 4:06 of the third period. Assistant coach Jamie Kompon replaced him on the bench.

"I loved our first, the third goal hurt us, but the fourth goal kind of put the game out of reach a little bit for us," Maurice said. "But up until that point I was really pleased with the way we were playing."

Brandon Hagel gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 2:08 of the first period. Victor Hedman took a slap shot at the left point that Hagel tipped between his legs in the left face-off circle, and the puck went off the right leg of Panthers defenseman Jeff Petry and through Tarasov's pads.

Zemgus Girgensons made it 2-0 at 14:08 when he slid a backhander five-hole on Tarasov from the low slot.

"It's been incredible, you can gain a lot of confidence off of continuing to win and play the right way," Hagel said. "A lot of guys in this dressing room stepped up after getting called up. We've had a lot of injuries and we still stayed the course and continued to play the same way. We've put ourselves in a really good spot."

Jake Guentzel pushed the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal at 1:14 of the second period. Darren Raddysh sent a one-timer from between the circles and the puck hit off Tarasov's glove to Guentzel, who tapped in the rebound from the right of the crease.

Erik Cernak extended it to 4-0 at 17:50, skating behind the net for a wraparound at the left post that went off the stick of Florida forward Eetu Luostarinen and then bounced in off Tarasov. It was Cernak's first goal since Feb. 27, 2025.

"You can guess how it feels in this room confidence wise," Hedman said. "Guys are coming back from injuries, we lose guys to injuries, we pick up each other and it's next-man-up mentality. It's been impressive to watch."

Holmberg made it 5-0 at 6:09 when he set up at the net front and poked the puck in off a rebound after Tarasov made a save on a shot from Gage Goncalves. Tarasov was hurt during the sequence and left the game.

Samoskevich cut the deficit to 5-1 during a five-minute power play at 9:50. His wrist shot from the right circle hit the right post and bounced off Vasilevskiy's back into the net. Jesper Boqvist got his 100th NHL point on the play with the primary assist.

"I thought we did a good job," Samoskevich said. "I thought we controlled play for a good majority of the first and second and they just capitalized on a couple of chances."

Bjorkstrand scored his third goal in as many games at 15:41, intercepting a pass from Florida defenseman Mikulas Hovorka and burying a wrist shot over Bobrovsky's glove from the left circle for the 6-1 final.

NOTES: Raddysh extended his point streak to six games (five goals, five assists). ... Hovorka was minus-3 in 11:27 of ice time in his NHL debut. ... Panthers forward Brad Marchand and defenseman Aaron Ekblad were late scratches. ... Maurice said that Tarasov will be evaluated Friday.