Jake Guentzel had a goal and two assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning routed the Florida Panthers, 5-1. The Game 3 victory at Amerent Arena was necessary and pivotal in drawing the Bolts back into the series.
The game began with the same feel and almost the same result as Game 1. The Panthers controlled most of the opening period with a strong forecheck and neutral zone control to limit the Lightning’s advance.
Matthew Tkachuk scored an early goal when Sam Bennett found him on the backdoor for an easy shot. The goal was the third of the series for Tkachuk.
Florida continued to move the puck easily in the Bolts’ defensive zone, creating numerous scoring opportunities. Florida outshot Tampa Bay, 12-5, in the first period.
However, the Lightning finally put a puck past Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky late in the period. Nikita Kucherov deked Aleksander Barkov to find Jake Guentzel, who moved the puck through three Panthers defenders. Brayden Point deflected Guentzel’s shot to even the score at one.
Lightning get their groove back
The Bolts played their best hockey of the series so far in the second period. Creating fast rushes and taking control of the neutral zone play, Tampa Bay earned its first lead of the series thanks to Nick Paul.
Paul scored when he found a seam and was fed the puck by Gage Goncalves. Paul snapped the puck past Bobrovsky as Aaron Ekblad was tripping him to put the Lightning up by one.
There goes Pauly 👀 pic.twitter.com/nLOdiLDiLa
— x – Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 26, 2025
“We’re just playing good hockey,” Paul said of the play leading to the game-winning goal. “You’re moving north, and you’re getting pucks to the net, and you just keep building momentum. One’s got to go and you just got to keep building on it.”
“We’re just building and building, and that one goes in. And it’s just easier to build momentum off of that.”
From there, the Lightning continued to build momentum and took control of the game.
“The guys on the bench are picking each other up,” Paul continued. “You’re just playing for each other. And from there, you just keep executing and building and building.”
“I think our team did a great job, and we just continued to get better throughout the game.”
Bolts ice the game
Another key moment of the game came at the start of the third period. With both teams playing with four players each and Tampa Bay facing an upcoming penalty kill situation, Jake Guentzel batted a Nikita Kucherov pass just inside the crossbar 21 seconds into the period.
The goal put the Bolts up by two and seemed to deflate the Panthers’ spirit even further.
“(Jake’s) a warrior, man!” Luke Glendening said of Guentzel. “He’s not a big guy, but he plays hard every night. A heck of a hockey player, that’s for sure!”
“He’s the definition of a gamer. The bigger the moment, the brighter he shines.”
Just as they did Thursday night, Tampa Bay’s penalty kill unit shut down the Panthers’ best efforts on their power play this afternoon.
“The kill has been great, and was great today,” Ryan McDonagh said. “Great contributions. Guys blocking huge shots, and obviously Vasy (Andrei Vasilevskiy) with some huge saves.”
“Since that first game, we’ve had to step up, and we’ve accepted the challenge here.”
Both Glendening and Anthony Cirelli would add goals to widen the lead and send Panthers fans heading for the exit early.
Tkachuk suspension impending?
The physicality of the game only emphasised the underlying tension between these two teams as the “Battle of Florida” continues. Scraps, scrums, and bad blood throughout the series led to brutal hits exchanged between the teams.
As Cirelli scored an empty net goal, Tkachuk leveled a defenseless Guentzel and was assessed a five-minute major penalty for interference with five minutes to play. The play was far more egregious than Hagel’s hit on Alexander Barkov two nights ago, for which Hagel earned a one-game suspension.
Florida’s Tkachuk may face a similar penalty for Game 4.
Coach Jon Cooper’s response was pointed when asked about the comparison between the Hagel and Tkachuk plays.
“The only players we hit were the ones with the puck,” Cooper said, which was an obvious reiteration of the statement that Panthers coach Paul Maurice made about the Hagel hit on Barkov.
Guentzel was mainly quiet on the incident with Tkachuk. When asked about the incident after the game, Guentzel left it in the hands of NHL discipline.
“I’m sure the league is going to do their job.”
Three Stars of the Game
1. Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay. A goal and two assists. As Luke Glendening put it succinctly: The bigger the moment, the brighter he shines!
2. Nick Paul, Tampa Bay. Paul was grinding hard when he scored the game-winning goal. That goal seemed to lift the proverbial “monkey off their backs” and got the Lightning back into the series.
3. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay. Stopped 33 of 34 shots to get back on the winning side of the crease after a challenging last few days.
Up Next
Game 4 of the series continues in South Florida on Monday night. Tampa Bay and Florida will face off at Amerant Arena at 7:00 p.m. Florida leads the series, 2-1.
