Panthers complete late comeback, push Lightning to brink of elimination: Takeaways

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SUNRISE, Fla. — The fierce, physical, occasionally violent Florida Panthers appeared to go a little too far.

It turns out, they knew what they were doing.

Tampa Bay was temporarily inspired by a nasty Aaron Ekblad hit to Brandon Hagel that wasn’t penalized, but two dramatic, late goals from Ekblad and Seth Jones aided the Panthers to a 4-2 win and a 3-1 series advantage.

The Panthers can clinch the series on Tampa Bay ice on Wednesday night.

Mitchell Chaffee and Erik Cernak scored two goals 11 seconds apart, immediately after Hagel was drilled by the flying forearm from Ekblad to give Tampa Bay the lead in the second period.

Hagel did not return to the game.

Anton Lundell started the scoring for Florida in the second period.

The first half of the game was played at an oddly slow, conservative pace, with both teams appearing concerned about making a mistake. There were very few odd-man rushes or scoring opportunities in general. That pace seemed to favor the Panthers, who temporarily enhanced their cause even more by striking first.

Then, Eblad’s hit undeniably changed the energy in the arena and even on the Lightning bench, where the normally reserved Jon Cooper threw a number of fist pumps after his team took the lead.

Jon Cooper and the Tampa bench was HYPE after Erik Cernak’s goal pic.twitter.com/15ImXzj0ag

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 29, 2025

The Panthers, though, were relentless in the final moments and found a way, as they so often do.

Ekblad throws a very bad hit

I have to imagine Ekblad is going to get suspended for that hit. There’s really no defending it. That’s a Jacob Trouba special.

Ekblad hits Hagel, who goes to the locker room. No call on the play, somehow pic.twitter.com/fwhRkvkCgI

— Shayna (@shaynagoldman_) April 29, 2025

Ekblad had plenty of time to make a decision on the play, and he chose to drive his foreman into Hagel’s head. There’s no other way to look at it.

I wouldn’t have a problem had Hagel not been suspended for his hit on Aleksander Barkov earlier in the series, because at least you could have made the argument that Hagel thought he had the puck. I’m being generous, yes, but I don’t know that every dirty hit needs to result in a suspension. Matthew Tkachuk’s hit on Jake Guentzel at the end of Game 3 was absolutely dirty and premeditated, but again, not every bad hit needs to be suspendable.

This one was a little different. It was direct contact to the head. He took multiple strides before launching himself to make the hit. And we can’t ignore that Hagel, who has been the center of attention all night, is the player he hit.

There was some gray area on Hagel and Tkachuk’s hits earlier in the series. I see absolutely no gray area here and I think a suspension of a game is a very easy call.

And another …

Early in the third period, Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola was ejected and assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding against Tampa Bay’s Zemgus Girgensons.

It appeared that Mikkola made contact with the back of Girgensons’ head on the play. More to the point, the Lightning forward was on his knees and facing the boards when Mikkola hit him.

Just a really bad, undisciplined play by Mikkola. The Panthers, of course, are a very physical team and sometimes physical teams cross the line, especially in the playoffs.

But the Panthers seemed a bit out of control on more than one occasion and even though Tampa Bay didn’t score on the subsequent five-minute power play, it was still a foolish play by a veteran player who should know better.

A brilliant penalty kill from Florida — the Lightning didn’t generate a good look in the lengthy power play — kept the defending Stanley Cup champions within striking distance.

But the hit remains a bad look and I wonder if Mikkola will be hearing from the league also. I didn’t find his play as flagrant as the Ekblad hit, but it was still deserving of a five-minute major.

Right on cue

One day earlier, Paul Maurice explained that he loved having Brad Marchand on his team — specifically on this third line — because he believed the veteran was capable of helping young center Anton Lundell locate another level of offensive production.

That was the duo that was responsible for the game’s first goal. A good forecheck by Marchand negated icing and ignited the play. Eetu Luostarinen then made a fine play to find Marchand out of a scrum, and Marchand neatly found Lundell.

The young center made no mistake once he was left alone in the slot, burying a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy’s stick side.

It was a big moment for the Panthers, but it was also about the only offense they produced all night. Their star forwards have gone pretty quiet during the past few games.

That said, I thought Marchand played his most effective game of the series. He’s just getting comfortable in Florida, but I’d anticipate him having a big moment or two before this series concludes.

Replay to the rescue for Bolts … only temporarily

Ekblad, of all people, appeared to even the game on a power-play goal in the third period, setting the home crowd into a frenzy.

Cooper, however, challenged the play for being offside and he was right on the money.

Replays clearly showed that Sam Bennett was ahead of the play, giving the referees the easy decision to overrule the initial goal call.

Ekblad, however, had the last laugh when he dramatically scored again — and this one counted — late in the third period to tie it.

(Photo: Rich Storry / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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