Five key stats from the Florida Panthers’ Game 2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers have taken a commanding lead in their opening-round Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Tampa Bay Lightning after posting a 2-0 shutout victory in Game 2 on Thursday.
Florida is now up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series as the games shift to Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena for Game 3 on Saturday (1 p.m., TBS, truTV, Max, Scripps Sports, Panthers+) and Game 4 on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN, ESPN+, Scripps Sports, Panthers+).
Here are five notable stats from the Panthers’ series-opening win.
4: With his 19-save shutout on Thursday, Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has now recorded four postseason shutouts dating back to the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s the second-most shutouts in that span, behind only five by the Vegas Golden Knights’ Adin Hill. No other goaltender beyond that duo has more than two.
3: With his game-winning goal in the first period on Thursday, defenseman Nate Schmidt has already scored three goals through Florida’s first two playoff games after scoring twice in Game 1 against Tampa Bay. There’s significance to that on multiple levels. Among them...
▪ He became the sixth defenseman in NHL history to score three goals through his first two games of a playoff year. The others: Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom (3 in 1995), Detroit’s Steve Chiasson (3 in 1991), Boston’s Mike O’Connell (3 in 1983), Chicago’s Dick Redmond (3 in 1973) and Ottawa’s George Boucher (3 in 1921).
▪ He joined Toronto’s Morgan Rielly as the second defenseman to score in each of his team’s first two games in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
▪ He became the second Panthers defenseman to score in the team’s first two games of a postseason following Jason Woolley in the 1996 playoffs.
5: The Panthers were a perfect 5 for 5 on the penalty kill on Thursday, holding the Lightning to just two shots on goal when they were on the power play. Overall in the series, Florida is 7 for 8 on the penalty and has allowed just six total shots on goal when playing down a man.
20: The Panthers as a team blocked 20 shots on Thursday. That accounted for just under one-third of the Lightning’s 61 shot attempts. Eleven players total blocked at least one shot, with Schmidt leading the way with three blocked shots.
10:09: Florida played the final 10:09 without captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov following a hard hit by Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, who received a five-minute major penalty for interference on the play.
In that final stretch, Florida allowed Tampa Bay to generate just two shots on goal as it preserved its shutout.
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