The Tampa Bay Lightning were down south in Miami on Saturday for a rivalry matchup against the Florida Panthers. Heading into that match the season series between the two organizations was tied 1-1. But the Lightning prevailed as two goals from Nikita Kucherov helped lead the Lightning to a 4-2 win over Florida to improve to 2-1 over the Panthers on the season and full team record of 21-13-3.
Eetu Luostarinen scored his fourth goal of the season to put the rival Panthers on the scoreboard first. He was assisted on his backhand shot by Mackie Samoskevich and Evan Rodriguez as the Panthers went up 1-0.
But then it was all Lightning through the remainder of the period. Jake Guentzel tied it up 13:05 into the period on a short-handed snap shot goal (his 18th goal of the year) assisted by Anthony Cirelli and Max Crozier.
Pontus Holmberg gave Tampa Bay their first lead of the day with just :08 seconds left on the clock in the first period. He sent a snap shot goal between the goal posts on assists by Yanni Gourde and Declan Carlile that made it a 2-1 match.
That’s where the period ended as the Lightning took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
As the second period got under way, Nikita Kucherov extended Tampa’s lead over Florida quickly. 2:31 into the second he scored a backhand goal for his 14th goal of 2025-26 that made it a 3-1 Lightning lead, giving the boys in blue & white some cushion. He was assisted by Brayden Point and Gage Goncalves.
But the Panthers began to crawl their way back just under five minutes later. Brad Marchand scored in the seventh minute on a snap shot goal assisted by Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart to make it a close 3-2 game with over 13 minutes left in the second period.
But the Lightning held on to their lead going into the second intermission as well. The game would resume in the third period with the Lightning on top 3-2.
The third period was a deadlock offensively as the defenses reigned supreme until under a minute remaining when the Lightning struck through the extend their lead.
Kucherov scored his second goal of the match to make it a 4-2 Lightning lead, a lead they held onto through the final minute to secure the 4-2 win over the Panthers. It was an unassisted empty-net goal.
Tampa now has have a 2-1 season series lead over Florida with one match left between the rivals this year. That match will be on February 5 at 7:30PM EST at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa.
The Lightning (21-13-3) will get no break this weekend as they are right back in action on Sunday. They’ll return home to Tampa Bay from Miami for a quick turnaround matchup against the Montreal Canadiens (20-12-5) at 5:00PM EST.