Stanley Cup playoffs live updates: Florida Panthers vs Tampa Bay Lightning, Game 4
Monday night will have major ramifications in the Stanley Cup playoffs series between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
A Panthers win gives Florida a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, needing just one win over the final three games to advance to the second round. A Lightning win levels the series at two wins apiece before the series shifts back to Tampa.
Puck drop from Amerant Bank Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN nationally and Scripps Sports locally.
Follow along throughout the game for live updates, news, analysis and commentary.
What a finish
The Panthers scored twice in an 11-second span and eventually won 4-2 to take a 3-1 lead in the series.
Seth Jones followed Ekblad’s game-tying goal to seal the win.
Tie game — for real this time
Aaron Ekblad ties it with 3:47 left to play.
2-2 game. Buckle up.
Power-play goal overturned
The Panthers appeared to have tied the game on an Aaron Ekblad power-play goal, but Tampa successfully challenged that the play was offside.
Panthers kill off the penalty
Florida held Tampa Bay to just one shot on goal during the five-minute major penalty, which ended seven seconds early when Brayden Point was called for high-sticking Eetu Luostarinen at center ice.
Mikkola major penalty
Not the start the Panthers wanted to the third period. Defenseman Niko Mikkola was handed a five-minute major penalty for boarding 19 seconds into the period.
Mikkola was also assessed a game misconduct.
Panthers down going into the third
Florida trails 2-1 heading into the second intermission.
Lightning strike twice in 11 seconds
The Lightning tied it 1-1 with 7:39 left in the second, with Mitchell Chaffee scoring on a rebound.
Eleven seconds later, Eric Cernak scored the go-ahead goal for Tampa Bay.
It’s now 2-1 Lightning with 7:28 left in the second.
Panthers finally strike
After getting several good looks early in the second period, Florida finally struck.
Anton Lundell beat Andrei Vasilevskiy from up close on a feed from Brad Marchand to give Florida a 1-0 lead with 10:54 left in the second period.
Tied after one
The Panthers and Lightning are tied 0-0 after one period. Each team has six shots on goal.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Panthers had the lead in shot attempts (16-14), scoring chances (8-5) and high-danger chances (3-0).
Florida also has 18 hits, with Niko Mikkola leading the way with five.
Panthers shake up power play units
With no Mackie Samoskevich tonight, the Panthers tweaked their power play units.
Carter Verhaeghe is back with the top group along with Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Seth Jones.
The second unit is Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, Evan Rodrigues, Aaron Ekblad and Nate Schmidt.
Another strong penalty kill
The Panthers killed off a Gustav Forsling penalty and are now 13 of 14 on the penalty kill this series.
They gave up zero shots on goal during that Tampa Bay power play.
Plenty of shot attempts, few on goal early
The Panthers and Lightning had a flurry of shot attempts of the first eight minutes of regulation, but just five total shots on goal.
Warmup notables
The Panthers lines and pairings during warmups are the same as morning skate...
Forward lines
Verhaeghe-Barkov-Reinhart
Rodrigues-Bennett-Tkachuk
Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand
Greer-Sturm-Boqvist
Defense pairings
Forsling-Ekblad
Mikkola-Jones
Schmidt-Kulikov
Goaltenders
Bobrovsky
Vanecek
The Lightning will be going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Tampa Bay’s lines and pairings, per the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo Encina, were as follows...
Forward lines
Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli
Goncalves-Paul-Gourde
Girgensons-Glendening-Chaffee
Defense pairs
Hedman-Moser
McDonagh-Cernak
Lilleberg-Perbix
Raddysh
Goaltenders
Vasilevskiy
Johansson
Series schedule
▪ Game 1 — Panthers 6, Lightning 2: Matthew Tkachuk scored twice in his first game with the team since early February and the Panthers suffocated the Lightning to win the series-opener.
▪ Game 2 — Panthers 2, Lightning 0: Sergei Bobrovsky logged a 19-save shutout — the fourth playoff shutout of his career — and Florida got goals from Nate Schmidt and Sam Bennett to secure the win.
▪ Game 3 — Lightning 5, Panthers 1: Matthew Tkachuk opened scoring less than three minutes into regulation, but the Lightning took over the game from there, taking advantage of Florida’s defensive miscues and riding a solid outing from goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to get their first win of the series.
▪ Game 4: Tonight
▪ Game 5: Wednesday, April 30, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2, ESPN+, Scripps Sports, Panthers+, Tampa’s Amalie Arena
▪ Game 6 (if necessary): Friday, May 2, time and TV TBD, Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena
▪ Game 7 (if necessary): Sunday, May 4, time and TV TBD, Tampa’s Amalie Arena
Pregame reading
Need to catch up ahead of Game 4? Here are the highlights of the Miami Herald’s coverage — plus a look at Panthers coverage elsewhere — over the past few days.
▪ As Panthers-Lightning series heats up, even the coaches are getting involved in chirps
▪ Aaron Ekblad is back ‘battling’ with Panthers in playoffs, but knows he needs to improve
▪ The Panthers are making a lineup change ahead of Game 4
▪ The Lightning are welcoming back forward Brandon Hagel into the lineup after he sat out Game 3 with a suspension.
This story was originally published April 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
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