SUNRISE, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves, Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had two goals and an assist, and the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 in Game 5 on Monday night to clinch their first-round series and advance in the NHL playoffs.
Niko Mikkola had a goal and an assist, Evan Rodrigues also scored, and Matthew Tkachuk had two assists for the Panthers, who won a playoff series against Tampa Bay for the first time in franchise history and clinched a postseason series at home for only the fourth time. Florida bested Boston and Philadelphia on home ice in the first two rounds of the 1996 playoffs, then eliminated Carolina at home in last season’s Eastern Conference finals en route to its second Stanley Cup Final appearance.
The Panthers made it past the opening round of the playoffs for a franchise-best third straight year. Florida has won five series over the past three postseason, the most among all teams over that span.
The Panthers’ six goals were their most in a series-clinching game in franchise history (previous high was four). It was also just the second time in franchise history that the Panthers had multiple multi-goal scorers in a playoff game (first time was May 18, 1996 — Game 1 of Eastern Conference Finals vs. Pittsburgh — Tom Fitzgerald, Dave Lowry).
Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning, who were eliminated in the first round for the second season in a row since reaching the Final in three straight seasons. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots.
Barkov gave Florida a 2-0 lead when he pounced on a rebound for a short-handed goal — his first of the playoffs — at 7:22 of the second period. He added another at 8:54 of a four-goal third to restore the Panthers’ two-goal cushion after Hedman got the Lightning on the board 59 seconds after Barkov’s first score.
The Panthers had 22 shots on goal in the second, the second most in a single period of a playoff game in franchise history. Florida had 23 shots in the third period of a playoff win against Pittsburgh in 1996.
Verhaeghe opened scoring for the Panthers with a 4-on-4 goal just 45 seconds into the second period. Verhaeghe grabbed his own rebound and wristed a shot past Vasilevskiy.
Rodrigues added a score for good measure with less than six minutes left to play on a wrist shot that was his first goal of the playoffs, and Verhaeghe scored an empty-netter with just under four minutes to play to stretch his franchise-record goals total to 20. Mikkola added another empty-netter nearly three minutes later.
Anthony Cirelli appeared to have scored Tampa Bay’s first goal when he tapped a loose puck past Bobrovsky with seven minutes left in the first period. The goal was overturned, however, after the Panthers challenged for goaltender interference. Former Panther Anthony Duclair‘s right skate made contact with Bobrovsky as he was trying to make the save.
The Lightning had another goal waved off in the second period when Mikhail Sergachev appeared to tie it on a long-range shot from the blue line. The goal was immediately waved off because of goaltender interference by Cirelli, and upheld after a failed Tampa Bay challenge.
The Lightning’s NHL-best power play during the regular season was inconsistent in this first round. Tampa Bay had two man advantages in the first 10 minutes of the opening period — Florida held both off — and finished the game 0-for-3.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.