The bad blood between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Lightning reached an all-time high when unhinged chaos ensued in the final period of the season finale between the two clubs. The Lightning dominated the Panthers for a 6-1 victory in which Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves as the Lightning went on to take the season series 3-1 from Florida.
Brandon Hagel put the Lightning on the scoreboard first in the first period, assisted by Victor Hedman to make it a 1-0 Lightning lead. And then Zemgus Zirgensons extended that lead to 2-0 on a backhander assisted by Pontus Holmberg and Yanni Gourde.
At the end of the first Matthew Tkachuk (Panthers) received two minutes for abuse of officials that would be enforced at the start of the second.
With the Lightning on a period-opening power play Jake Guentzel scored with assists by Darren Raddysh and Nikita Kucherov to make it a 3-0 Lightning advantage.
With three minutes left to play in the second period J.J. Moser and Sam Bennett got into it, both receiving penalties for roughing, along with Tkachuk and Victor Hedman as tempers began to flair between the two clubs, the start of what would turn ugly.
A little over a minute later Erik Cernak extended Tampa’s lead to 4-0 on a goal assisted by Ryan McDonagh and Dominic James.
The second intermission separated the two squads, but as they returned to the ice, the chaos ensued.
Niko Mikkola started the chaos, break-checking Kucherov. Then Tkachuk, who had it out for Tampa Bay came up next and in a very intentional path on the ice came from behind Kucherov to push him over, then cue the Malay as the fists started flying.
Coming to the defense of his teammate, Hagel started throwing haymakers at Tkachuk, Donovan Sebrango and Gourde get into things with Raddysh as well. Gustav Forsling started swinging at Moser, with Forsling having to be pulled off Moser as the tempers between the two sides absolutely reached an all-time high. Several penalties came out of the chaos:
Mikkola got two minutes for interfering Hagel.
Tkachuk got five minutes for fighting Hagel.
Moser got five minutes for fighting Forsling.
Hagel got five minutes for fighting Tkachuk.
Forsling got five minutes for fighting Moser.
Moser got 10 minutes for game misconduct.
Forsling got 10 minutes for game misconduct.
The Panthers’ head coach, Paul Maurice was also ejected from the game.
Gourde got 10 minutes for misconduct.
Carter Verhaeghe got 10 minutes for misconduct.
Play got back under way as both teams had many players (and coaches) facing penalties.
About two minutes after the extended fighting delay, Holmberg struck for Tampa’s fifth goal of the match as they kept piling it on the Panthers. He was assisted by Gage Goncalves and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
A few seconds later Curtis Douglas received a five minute penalty for fighting Nikko Millola and Douglas received a 10 minute penalty for aggression.
With the Panthers on a power play, Mackie Samoskevich took advantage to get a goal back and make it a 5-1 Lightning lead with assists by J. Boqvist and A. Lundell.
But then with just under under five minutes to play, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored an unassisted goal to make it 6-1 Tampa over Florida, a lead they did not look back on.
That was all the Lightning leaded to go into the break on a win.
Though Florida-out-shot Tampa 34-28, Vasilevskiy was the first star of the game for his 33 saves on the night.
All six goals scored by the Lightning were also all scored by members of the team who will be going on to Milano-Cortina to represent Tampa in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Both teams combined for 147 penalty minutes and 61 hits as Tampa took the season series 3-1 and sent the Lightning into the Olympic break with a 37-14-4 record.