The battle of Florida began tonight. The Lightning had a decent first period, but their second period did them in. They took penalties that they were unable to kill. Florida scored on all three power play attempts. Sergei Bobrovsky made key saves when needed and Andrei Vasilevskiy did not. The Bolts dropped game one of the series and lost their home ice advantage. Panthers lead the series one game to none.
Panthers Draw First Blood in Battle of Florida
The Florida Panthers opened the scoring early in this one. They scored on their first shot of the game. Sam Bennett batted the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy at 3:44.
The Bolts fought back. Matthew Tkachuk, in typical Matthew Tkatchuk fasion, took a roughing penalty. The Lightning had some good chances on the power play and finally capitalized. With four seconds remaining on the man advantage, Jake Guentzel took the puck from behind the net and tucked it past Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game at 1-1.
“Rebound Guentzel, SCORREEE!!! GUENTZEL!!!”
Guentz with the quick hands to open the Bolts’ playoff account!#FLAvsTBL
🎧: https://t.co/S6Y9TymMk9
📻: @1025TheBone pic.twitter.com/uggFg7CbNL— Lightning Audio Network (@BoltsRadio) April 23, 2025
Momentum definitely shifted the Bolts’ way after that goal. They looked strong and had some grade-A chances. But they were not able to beat Bobrovsky.
Last minute of play and it looked as though the teams would go to their dressing rooms deadlocked at 1-1. Unfortunately, Sam Reinhart’s tip fluttered past Vasilevskiy with 45 seconds remaining and the Panthers took a 2-1 lead to the dressing room.
Bolts outshot the Panthers 10-6 and had 1.55 expected goals compared to the Panthers’ 0.87. But where it counted, the Lightning trailed 2-1.
Panthers Control the Battle in the Second
The Panthers scored early in the first and did it again in the second. Nate Schmidt scored at 4:41 to put Florida up 3-1. The Lightning challenged the goal for goaltender interference. Replays really showed no evidence of interference and the goal call was quickly upheld.
The Panthers went to the power play and quickly scored their fourth of the game. The 4-1 lead was pretty much insurmountable with the way the Lightning were squandering opportunities and the way Bobrovsky was playing in net.
But for good measure, the Panthers would add another on the power play later that period. Matthew Tkachuk with his second power play goal of the period gave Florida a four-goal lead.
Too Little, Too Late
The Lightning did manage another goal before the end of the period. Brayden Point found the back of the net at 13:04 to pull the Bolts within three. But the game was still well out of reach.
“Rebound Guentzel, SCORREEE!!! GUENTZEL!!!”
Guentz with the quick hands to open the Bolts’ playoff account!#FLAvsTBL
🎧: https://t.co/S6Y9TymMk9
📻: @1025TheBone pic.twitter.com/uggFg7CbNL— Lightning Audio Network (@BoltsRadio) April 23, 2025
The Panthers added another power play goal in the third period and stymied every Lightning chance.
This game was an overall terrible start to the playoffs for the Bolts. Nothing really went right. They will need to regroup and have a much stronger showing in game two if they have any hope of making a series out of this one.
Three Stars
- Matthew Tkachuk– 2 goals, 1 assist
- Nate Schmidt– 2 goals
- Sam Bennett– opening goal of the series, 1 assist
Up Next
The series continues with game two at Amalie Arena Thursday night at 6:30pm.
