No comeback this time for Panthers in loss to state rival Lightning

Even during the good times this season, the Florida Panthers have been chasing the action almost every game.

Trailing big early is living dangerously, regardless the opponent — but especially against your biggest rival.

On Saturday, the multi-goal deficit magic ran out for the two-time defending champs. The Tampa Bay Lightning, unlike many of Florida’s opponents this month, made their big lead hold up, beating the host Panthers 4-2 in a game that was more angst than art. Lightning star Nikita Kucherov scored twice (including once on an empty net) and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all but two of the 26 shots he faced to send the Panthers home with a loss for just the third time in 11 games.

“It’s fun,” said Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich. “We both hate each other. .. And any time you play a team in the playoffs it’s always good rhythm and always a little chippy.”

That’s putting it kindly.

The game took nearly three hours, not because of overtime or a ton of goals scored but because the officials needed long breaks to simply keep track of how many players from each team they needed to pile into the penalty box.

(At one point, six Lightning players crammed into their small glass room.)

So yes, the real story was the Lightning (21-13-3) — through goonish lack of discipline — giving the Panthers (20-15-2) every chance to win this game, and Florida simply refusing to do so. These cross-state rivals brought a nasty disposition to their 184th all-time meeting, combining for a half dozen or so skirmishes and 116 combined penalty minutes in a game that probably could have used a parental advisory.

The Panthers on a ridiculous 11 power play opportunities Saturday scored as many goals on the man advantage as they allowed: 1.

Those struggles were on them early on, and a function of Vasilevskiy’s brilliance late. Vasilevskiy stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period, which featured 48 of Tampa Bay’s 77 penalty minutes.

Put another way, it was exactly the ragged product you’d expect between this bitter rivals coming off a long Christmas break. It was the Panthers’ first game in four days, and it showed — particularly early.

“I thought in the first half of the game we looked like we hadn’t touched a puck in a while,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It was slow. Didn’t love that. Then the power of play went from struggling pretty good to having all the chances you can want on a power play. They made a bunch of real good saves there to keep them with the lead.”

The Panthers trailed 2-1 at the first intermission, and frankly were lucky it was that close. An early man-advantage opportunity was particularly atrocious; Florida nearly gave up two shorthanded goals on the same power play.

Tampa Bay erased a one-goal deficit when Jake Guentzel got behind Florida’s special teams backline and rifled a short past Sergei Bobrovsky. A little over a minute later, the Lightning had another runout and another apparent shorty, but replay determined that Anthony Cirelli pushed it into the net with his hand.

Another bad neutral ice giveaway by Florida gave the Lightning a rush and the lead when Pontus Holmberg scored with eight seconds left in the period. That was the Lightning’s 12th and final shot of the first; the Panthers managed just five shots on goal in the opening 20.

Tampa extended the lead to two goals two-and-a-half minutes into the second, as Brayden Point and Kucherov played keep-away from Bobrovsky before Kucherov found the back of the next with his 14th of the season.

But Brad Marchand scored on the power play — his team-leading 21st goal of the season — which kept things interesting heading into the final period.

This story was originally published December 27, 2025 at 11:00 PM.