RECAP: Panthers 5, Lightning 2

TAMPA BAY – Ending the road trip on a high note.

Handling their cross-state rivals, the Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 at Benchmark International Arena on Monday night.

With the win, the Panthers closed out the four-game road trip going 3-1-1 and improved to 17-13-2 on the season.

Now owning 36 points, Florida sits just three points out of the top spot in the Atlantic Division behind the Lightning and Detroit Red Wings (39 points).

“We found a way to persevere after a loss and that’s extremely important in this league,” Aaron Ekblad said after the win. “We feel pretty confident in our game right now.”

Getting the quick start they wanted, Sam Reinhart broke the ice early with a shorthanded goal at 2:16.

His 13th shorthanded goal since the 2023-24 season, Reinhart leads the NHL in the category during that span.

Not just putting the Panthers ahead 1-0, Reinhart collected his 355th point as a Panther to pass Scott Mellanby as the sixth most on Florida’s all-time point list.

“It’s pretty cool,” Reinhart said of being towards the top of the all-time point list. “It’s been nice being here for a good chunk of time, seeing where the organization can get to. There’s a lot of good history there and it’s nice to be on the good side of it.”

Striking less than two minutes later, Anton Lundell ripped a wrist shot by Jonas Johansson at 3:48 for his 10th of the season.

Picking up where he left off in the shutout against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, Sergei Bobrovsky made five high-danger saves during the first period, before eventually putting up 26 saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

Extending the lead to 3-0 in the second period, Brad Marchand tapped in his 19th of the season on a long-range pass from Carter Verhaeghe at 11:48.

Scoring another goal on special teams, this time on the power play, Reinhart buried a pass from Mackie Samoskevich at 18:08 to make it 4-0.

Per NHL Stats, it is the fourth time Reinhart has scored both a power play goal and shorthanded goal, the most in team history.

“He just played an incredibly smart game,” head coach Paul Maurice said of Reinhart. “He knows when to push on the penalty kill, when to take a chance.”

Sounding the horn in the closing minute of the period, making it 4-1, Max Crozier got the Lightning on the board at 19:27.

Adding another for Tampa Bay at the start of the third period, J.J. Moser made it 4-2 at 2:11.

Remaining perfect while shorthanded during the road trip, the penalty stopped their 13th straight, before they’d eventually stop their 14th, after a challenge for goaltender interference was ruled a good goal.

“Their timing was really good and their sticks were really good,” Maurice said of the penalty kill that went five for five. “It’s a fairly aggressive kill and you can’t be off by a foot against that team.”

Blocking a shot during Tampa Bay’s power play, Gustav Forsling left the game and did not return.

After the game, Maurice stated that the blueliner would be evaluated.

Answering back for the Panthers and putting the game out of reach, Verhaeghe made it 5-2 with a backhander at 6:37.

“It was a road trip with really good teams,” said Uvis Balinskis. “We had a tough back-to-back game, but we did a good job regrouping after that game. Really good two games, now we just got to keep that momentum going.

THEY SAID IT

“That was one of the hardest back-to-backs I’ve ever played.” – Aaron Ekblad on back-to-back games in Utah and Colorado to start the road trip

“Our power play numbers maybe haven’t been great over the last five or six games, but I love it. We’re getting chances.” – Paul Maurice on power play

CATS STATS

- Sam Reinhart’s 13th shorthanded goal tied Aleksander Barkov for second most in team history (Radek Dvorak leads with 16), per NHL Stats

- Seth Jones led the team with five blocked shots

- Sam Reinhart had a team-high six shots

- Jeff Petry and Uvis Balinskis each had a +2 plus/minus rating

- Mackie Samoskevich had five hits

WHAT’S NEXT?

Back home.

After a four-game road trip, the Panthers will be back at Amerant Bank Arena for a three-game homestand, starting with the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

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