Comeback Cats Return: Florida Panthers Get Big Game 4 Win

SUNRISE — It’s ironic, but the last time the Florida Panthers were part of a comeback as dramatic as Monday night was when Brad Marchand, one of the architects of the Game 4 win over the Lightning, ended up on the short end.

It was two years ago Wednesday that the Panthers came from behind to defeat Marchand and the Bruins in overtime of Game 7 of a series which was one of the biggest playoff upsets in NHL history.

“When you play against this team, they just had a swagger and a belief where they just kept coming at you,’’ Marchand said after getting two assists in the Panthers wild 4-2 win over the Lightning in Game 4.

“It didn’t matter what happens during the game, they just kept coming. Believe in their system. They don’t change much. They just continue to do the same thing, and they believed in it, and it worked.’’

Florida went from almost being tied going back to Tampa, to being up 3-1 in the best-of-7 series.

Monday night’s game was full of oddities.

The Panthers were again flawless on the penalty kill.

They successfully killed 14 of 15 in the series against one of the league’s better power plays.

The Panthers have held Nikita Kucherov to only two power-play shots in the four games.

Once again Florida took the lead, as they did in Game 3.

Marchand fed a neat pass to Anton Lundell near the crease and Lundell slipped it past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Once again, it looked like the momentum was swinging towards Tampa Bay in the second period when Mitchell Chaffee and Erik Cernak put pucks past Sergei Bobrovsky 11 seconds apart.

Things got dimmer at the start of the third period when Niko Mikkola took a 5-minute major for boarding Zemgus Girgensons and was tossed.

The Panthers only had to kill 4:53 of the 5 minutes thanks to Brayden Point high-sticking Eetu Luostarinen.

Seconds later, on the power play,  Panthers’ fans jumped for joy when Aaron Ekblad flipped a short wrister past Vasilevskiy for what looked like the tying goal.

Coach Jon Cooper successfully challenged a very obvious offside.

Ekblad had a second chance in the waning minutes when he was allowed unobstructed access to the front of the Tampa goal, where he knocked in a rebound of a Sam Reinhart shot.

Then, in a move which had league statisticians jumping, only 11 seconds later Seth Jones sent in a soft shot which hit the skate of Ryan McDonagh and knuckled past Vasilevsky.

It was the fastest two goals scored by defensemen for one team in Stanley Cup playoff history.

What are the odds of two sets of tying and tie-breaking goals in the same game both coming 11 seconds apart?

Coach Paul Maurice said the successful PK of Mikkola’s major penalty was the turning point.

“It started with the kill. That was such an important piece to the game,” Maurice said. “Keeping that belief, you come out of it and you think something good is going to happen. You get a power play goal, and you think that’s what it is. Except it’s not. It’s offside. There’s no complaint there. Just, that one’s a kick in the teeth.”

He mentioned the obvious.

“We haven’t had a lot of those (comebacks) this year,’’ Maurice continued. “It’s been grinders. It’s been tough.”

In talking about the famous comeback in Boston he said that there have been so many people out of the lineup, as a group “you don’t have the history of the comeback.”

Cooper is normally rather composed and soft-spoken, no matter the situation.

Postgame he showed just a bit of uncharacteristic testiness when asked, What do you think happened tonight?

“What do you mean what happened? There was icing, we had chances to get it out,’’ Cooper responded after a few deep breaths. “We didn’t. That was it. I don’t know what else to say. The next one (Jones’ goal) was a little bit of a flukey one so both teams in the game had two spurts of 11 seconds that were really rewarding.

“Unfortunately, theirs came at the end with not a whole lot of time left.”

Marchand, for his part, expressed his delight in now being part of the postseason excitement in Florida.

“I love getting a behind the scenes look at these great teams,’’ he said. “Teams that have gone far and had success because you just can learn so much from the guys and coaching staff. The way they do certain things

“When you get a look at it you realize that it didn’t happen by accident.

“There was a plan put in motion. Guys bought in. When you have that complete buy-in through the entire organization good things happen.”

This series is far from over.

See you Wednesday night in Tampa.

The Lightning will be there.

So, too, will the Panthers.

2025 NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND: GAME 5

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING 

Panthers lead Best-of-7 Series 3-1

• When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa 
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• National TV: ESPN2
• Streaming: Panthers+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Series Schedule — Game 1: Florida 6, @ Tampa Bay 2; Game 2: Florida 2, @ Tampa Bay 0; Game 3: Tampa Bay 5, @ Florida 1; Game 4: @ Florida 4, Tampa Bay 2; Game 5 at Tampa: Wednesday (ESPN2/Scripps), 7:30; Game 6* at Florida: Friday (TBA); Game 7* at Tampa: Sunday (TBA).
• Regular Season Series: Tied 2-2
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 79-53-19, 10 ties
• All-Time Postgame Series: Tampa Bay Leads 2-1 (won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS); Florida d. Lightning 4-1 in 2024 first-round.