2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Game 5 Panthers at Lightning: How to Watch, Lines, Goalies, Odds
The Florida Panthers have the chance to close out the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Florida leads the series 3-1. With a win tonight, it’s over. Tampa Bay wins, and Game 6 is back in Sunrise on Friday night.
Florida will be without defenseman Aaron Ekblad after he was suspended two games for his high elbow to Brandon hagel.
Hagel will also miss tonight for the Lightning.
“This [suspension] would be viewed in our room as an injury,’’ Paul Maurice said. “This is no different than Sam Bennett breaking a finger against Tampa last year and missing five games. You’re going to have really good players coming into your lineup.”
Maurice noted that Ekblad had just come off a 20-game suspension, so, Uvis Balinskis is used to playing — and the Panthers are used to the defensive combinations they will use tonight.
“He has missed 20 of the past 22 games, so we’re not used to having him in our lineup anyway,’’ Maurice said. “We have that experience now and it’s not just a couple games.’’
The Panthers are 2-0 in games at Tampa during this series.
GAME 5: PANTHERS @ LIGHTNING
- How to Watch: Tonight’s game is on local TV and is also being broadcast nationally on ESPN2. The game can be streamed locally on Panthers+ as well.
- Starting Goalies: The Panthers are going with Sergei Bobrovsky; The Lightning will start Andrei Vasilevskiy.
- NHL Betting Odds: The local book has Tampa Bay as a slight favorite (-115) on the money line. If you think the Panthers will win, a $105 bet pays $100.
- Subscribe to the FHN YouTube channel to hear from the Florida Panthers throughout the postseason.
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
- Betting Odds — Lightning Favored: Money Line (-115); Puck line (-1.5, +200); Over/Under 5.5 (-115/-105)
- 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.
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (3-1) LINES
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart
17 Evan Rodrigues // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk
27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 63 Brad Marchand
10 A.J. Greer // 8 Nico Sturm // 70 Jesper Boqvist
42 Gus Forsling // 3 Seth Jones
77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov
26 Uvis Balinskis // 88 Nate Schmidt
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
41 Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Mackie Samoskevich, Jonah Gadjovich, Tomas Nosek, Jaycob Megna
PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (1-3) LINES
59 Jake Guentzel // 21 Brayden Point // 86 Nikita Kucherov
20 Nick Paul // 71 Anthony Cirelli // 93 Gaeg Goncalves
14 Conor Geekie // 37 Yanni Gourde // 41 Mitchell Chaffee
— // 28 Zemgus Girgensons // 11 Luke Glendening
77 Victor Hedman // 90 JJ Moser
27 Ryan McDonagh // 81 Erik Cernak
78 Emil Lilleberg // 48 Nick Perbix
// 43 Darren Raddysh
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
31 Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Max Crozier
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body), Brandon Hagel (upper body)
Tampa Bay Lightning Lines Courtesy NHL.com
