Panthers were ‘Comeback Cats’ in Game 4. They haven’t done that much this season
So often during their rise to becoming one of the NHL’s top teams during the past few years, the Florida Panthers have shown a knack for rallying late. The “Comeback Cats” moniker became a staple in the fan base, with no deficit seemingly too big to overcome.
This season has been a different story.
The Panthers won just two of 23 games they played when they trailed through two periods this regular season, tied with the Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks for the second-fewest comeback wins in the league. Only the New Jersey Devils, with one win in 27 tries when trailing after 40 minutes, had fewer such wins.
That’s one reason why the Panthers’ 4-2 win againstg the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series was so notable. Florida defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones scored in an 11-second span in the final four minutes of the third period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. An empty-net goal with 1:40 left on the clock sealed the win, which pushed the Panthers’ lead in the best-of-7 series to 3-1.
“We haven’t had a lot of those this year,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s been grinders, it’s been tough. … It was really mentally important that you could come back.”
The comeback came despite the Lightning doing a stellar job of limiting Florida’s shots on goal after it took the lead.
After Tampa Bay went up 2-1 with 7:28 left in the second period, Florida managed just four shots on goal the rest of the second period and then only got two shots to the net in the first 15 minutes of the third before getting a flurry of attempts to goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy down the stretch.
“It’s a tight game,” Maurice said. “That’s even more difficult sometimes to mount the comeback. If you’re trading chances back and forth, you’re thinking you’re right there no matter what, but when two really skilled teams [are playing and] there’s not a lot of room to move the puck, you’re always wanting to have a little better hands on some plays because the defensive skill of the teams is very, very high and it’s not easy to generate something.”
Quick stats
▪ Jones’ and Ekblad’s third-period goals marked the fastest two goals by defensemen for one team in Stanley Cup playoffs history. The previous mark of 16 seconds, done three times previously.
▪ Ekblad’s goal, which came with 3:47 left to play, was the second-latest game-tying goal by a defenseman in Panthers postseason history following Brandon Montour, who scored with one minute remaining tie Game 7 of the 2023 first round at Boston.
▪ Jones’ goal, which came with 3:36 left to play, was the third-latest go-ahead goal in franchise postseason history, trailing Gustav Forsling (1:33 left in Game 6 of 2024 second round against Boston) and Matthew Tkachuk (five seconds remaining in Game 4 of 2023 Eastern Conference final against Carolina).
▪ With a goal and an assist on Monday, Panthers center Anton Lundell now has 30 points (seven goals, 23 assists) in 59 career postseason games. He is the sixth player to reach 30 career playoff points with the Panthers, joining Aleksander Barkov (63), Carter Verhaeghe (55), Tkachuk (50), Sam Bennett (41) and Sam Reinhart (37).
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 11:08 AM.
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