Florida vs. Tampa Bay Game 5 Recap
Lightning End Season with a 6-3 Loss Against the Panthers
“Whether they swept us or whether it was 4-1, 4-2 is, to me, kind of irrelevant. They beat us.” - Coach Jon Cooper
Elliot Friedman of the 32 Thoughts podcast said, “Whoever loses the Battle Of Florida didn’t have a first-round exit; they lost the Eastern Conference Final.”
It wasn’t a first round sweep, but it felt like swallowing glass. Point is, it hurt. For the third year in a row, the Lightning have lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances, three straight first round exits stick out like a sore thumb.
It seems like the hockey world agrees with Elliot Friedman, though. 18 of 24 national pundits picked the Lightning to win the series. Additionally, Jon Cooper seems to think of this series as the Eastern Conference Final as well:
“We’re in a really tough division, and we’ve been the rep in the Stanley Cup Final for 5 straight years. It was our turn for awhile. Now, it’s theirs. It’s our job to make sure it’s our turn again.
I am, by no means, trying to assert that Florida will reach the Stanley Cup Final. Nor am I saying that Jon Cooper thinks that. But, it does seem to be the league-wide conscientious that the Battle Of Florida had the two Eastern Conference favorites to reach the cup.
A game five series victory doesn’t convey the parity this series boasted.
Game 5 was yet another nail biter. The score was 3-3 halfway through the game. But, let’s go back to the beginning.
Gage Goncalves opened the scoring and gave the Lightning their first opening goal of the series:
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to tie the game: Carter Verhaeghe scored less than 3 minutes later. 1-1.
Anton Lundell scored about 5 minutes later by deflecting a pass from the circle from Brad Marchand. This scoring chance happened after Kucherov had the puck stolen in the offensive zone by Eetu Loustarinen.
I was feeling super confident after getting a Gage Goncalves goal to kickstart the scoreboard, but going down 2-1 after yet another Lightning mistake made everything feel real. My heart rate elevated, and for the first time in the series, I really wondered if it would be the last game of the year.
Hope returned about two minutes later with more depth scoring from the Bolts. Conor Geekie saved the offensive zone possession with an athletic poke check that came loose for Nick Paul who whistled a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky.
2-2 heading into intermission.
52 seconds into the 2nd period, though, more mistakes came from the Lightning. Captain Victor Hedman failed to knock the puck past Luostarinen behind Vasilevskiy, and he sauced the puck up to the point. The Panthers fired the shot from the blue line, and Aleksander Barkov, left all alone in front of Vasilevskiy, tipped the puck into the net. 3-2.
Again, doubt wandered unhindered through my mind.
My hope skyrocketed when the Lightning scored to tie the game on a power play goal from Jake Guentzel. The power play had gone 1-for-16 up until that point. Was this a sign of turning tables?
The Lightning received another power play about 3 minutes later. Here we go…
Unfortunately, the Lightning failed to boost their power play percentage. On the contrary, the Lightning had a mental lapse and allowed Sam Bennett to break out of the penalty box to join a 2-on-1 rush chance. Bennett received the pass across the royal road & buried his opportunity into the net. 4-3.
That fourth goal felt like the straw that broke the Lightning’s back. They pushed to come back, creating several good chances. Ultimately, after taking their first opening goal of the series, conceding the lead for the third time was too much weight to bear.
Eetu Luostarinen capped off his career-night by burying his rush chance into the wide-open net. 5-3.
Coach Cooper said this before game 5:
This group has given us everything they have. Sometimes, maybe the result on the scoreboard wasn't what we wanted but the effort was always there, and that's why I have loved this group. They just never quit. There is always fight in the dog left, and I think any coach would tell you they would take a team like that anytime. So, I don't expect nine months of going to war with each other to change now. They are a bunch of gamers.”
To his point, the Lightning did continue to push; however, the Panther’s “near perfect defense” - according to Dave Mishkin per Power Lunch - was too powerful to crack. The Panthers added an insurance goal with 4:28 remaining into the empty net.
So, as you can see, game 5 was another close game that ended in a Panther’s victory.
With two powerhouse teams, close games can be expected. These tense showdowns are often decided by who makes the first mistake…for the Lightning, they made too many mistakes & it cost them their livelihood in the 2024-25 season.
MEDIA’S THREE STARS:
1) Eetu Luostarinen 2) Brad Marchand 3) Gage Goncalves
BOOMER’S THREE STARS:
1) Eetu Luostarinen 2) Sergei Bobrovsky 3) Gage Goncalves
NOTEABLE STATS:
TB Luke Glendening & Zemgus Girgensons led the Lightning with 5 hits a piece.
TB Nick Paul led the Bolts with 5 shots on net.
TB Jake Guentzel won 6 faceoffs & lost 0.
TB Victor Hedman led the Bolts in TOI with 26:37.
FL Eetu Luostarinen had 4 points, 4 hits, 3 shots, 2 takeaways, 1 blocked shot, and went +4 on the net.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS: