Sergei Bobrovsky shuts out Lightning as Florida Panthers take a 2-0 series lead
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 19 shots he faced to lead the Florida Panthers to a 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series at Amalie Arena.
Florida is now 2-0 in the best-of-7 series after opening the series with a 6-2 win on Tuesday. The matchup now shifts to Sunrise. Game 3 is at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Game 4 is at 7 p.m. Monday.
“It was a tight game,” Bobrovsky said, adding that his defense “kept [the Lightning] offense outside so. They did a great job. ... The guys had the strong gap. The guys did great box outs, all those little details. It was a great win.”
But in the midst of it all, the Panthers played the final 10-plus minutes without captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov, who was leveled by the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel behind the net. Hagel was handed a five-minute major penalty for interference on the play with 10:09 left to play, and Barkov went to the dressing room under his own power but did not return to the game.
Coach Paul Maurice did not have an immediate update on Barkov’s status postgame.
“He’s an irreplaceable player,” defenseman Seth Jones said.
As for Bobrovsky, he now has four career postseason shutouts, all of which have come over the past three years.
A combination of stingy defense in front of him and a slew of missed chances by the Lightning offense proved pivotal to Bobrovsky’s clean sheet. So, too, did Florida going a perfect 5 for 5 on the penalty kill and allowing Tampa Bay to record just two shots on goal when playing with a man advantage.
While the Lightning had a 61-40 edge in shot attempts, Florida blocked 20 of Tampa Bay’s shots while another 22 went high or wide of the net. Of the 19 shots Bobrovsky did face, five were listed as high-danger by the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s pretty incredible,” center Sam Bennett said. “Obviously, we’ve seen it for the last couple years now, when the moment gets bigger, he’s just seems to be more on his game. He made some incredible saves again just to keep us in it. It’s impressive to see.”
Defenseman Nate Schmidt opened scoring for Florida, ripping a one-timer from just above the right circle past Andrei Vasilevskiy 4:15 into regulation. The shot came off a pass from Sam Reinhart after a Barkov faceoff win in the offensive zone. Bennett sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 3.4 seconds left.
Schmidt now has three goals through Florida’s first two playoff games. He is just the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record three goals through a team’s first two games postseason games and the first in 30 years. The other five: Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom (1995), Detroit’s Steve Chiasson (1991), Boston’s Mike O’Connell (1983), Chicago’s Dick Redmond (1973) and Ottawa’s George Boucher (1921).
“He just needs to keep shooting the puck,” Jones said. “That’s for sure. He’s got a great shot. He’s being aggressive right now.”
That can be said for the Panthers as a whole. They are up 2-0 on the Lightning for a second consecutive postseason, this time getting the first two wins on the road after getting home-ice advantage in the first round last season. Florida played its style of game in both outings, using a suffocating defense to limit quality chances and knowing Bobrovsky will swallow up whatever gets missed.
They received the emotional boost in the series opener on Tuesday when star winger Matthew Tkachuk returned to the lineup and kept the momentum going in Game 2.
Now, another boost comes on Saturday when top-pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad is cleared to return from his 20-game suspension.
“It’s exactly what we wanted to do —come in here and win the first two,” Bennett said. “Obviously the games aren’t perfect. There were a couple mistakes by us tonight, but that’ll happen. Guys were helping each other out, bailing each other out. Bobby played unbelievable. Sometimes you need just gutty efforts, tough, greasy games and that’s what tonight was.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 9:21 PM.
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