It was a closeout game for the Florida Panthers Wednesday night, and an elimination game for the host Tampa Bay Lightning. The difference?

“They will have the desperation advantage on us,” Cats coach Paul Maurice had said after the morning skate. “We will possibly have an excitement advantage.”

Florida possibly, no, demonstrably, had something else:

A better hockey team than its state rival.

A reigning NHL Stanley Cup champion feeling like it can repeat — and now emboldened to think so, to believe so.

“Belief is a dangerous thing,” as the Panthers’ Brad Marchand put it.

Panthers forward Sam Bennett went from purgatory to paradise for the game-winning fourth goal in the 6-3 triumph that advances Florida with a decisive 4-1 series win and sends Tampa reeling hard into its offseason.

Bennett was in the penalty box for slashing when Tampa had tied the game on a power play.

He was soon after serving a penalty, again, for the same crime, but this time his teammates killed it — and Bennett flew out of the box and within seconds cashed the winning goal late in the second period, putting a mid-range low slap shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy to his right.

Eetu Luostarinen added an insurance goal and then Sam Reinhart an empty netter.

It marked the 23rd consecutive Florida playoff win when leading after two periods. I believe you spell that streak “Sergei Bobrovsky.” Six different players scored Wednesday for the Cats, who were without suspended (again) Aaron Ekblad.

Florida advances now to face the winner of the Toronto-Ottawa series, with the Maple Leafs up 3-2 entering Game 6 Thursday. Fans of No. 1 -seed Toronto have been chirping on social media, saying ‘bring-on-the Panthers’ and such. Two things:

1) Um, beat Ottawa first.

2) Be careful what you wish for.

(The Panthers are it right now in local pro sports. The Heat, of course, flamed out of the NBA playoffs’ first-round drenched in epic humiliation, swept like dirt. Wednesday night, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami lost a second straight game to MLS foe Vancouver to bow out in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament — yet another disappointment for Team Messi.)

Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis had said entering Game 5, “The first five minutes will be the most important.“

He was sort of right. The start was eventful … but we were just gettin’ started.

Tampa led 1-0 2:33 in on a put-in goal by one Gage Goncalves — the first time the Lightning has scored first in this series.

Quickly Florida parlayed a power play into a 1-1 knot just 11 seconds into the advantage on Carter Verhaeghe’s close backhander 5:21 into the game.

Soon after, at 10:06 into the first, a Marchand shot was redirected into the net off Anton Lundell’s skate for a 2-1 Cats lead. (What a great late-season add Marchand has been, and what a great line that has been for Florida. Getting Marchand and defenseman Seth Jones for the postseason push has been more of what make Cats general manager Bill Zito the star-in-a-suit of the power Florida has become.)

Marchand has been a major, vocal bench guy when not on ice, a “big driver of the belief,” said Maurice.

Panthers fans who made the short trip were making themselves heard and quieting the home team. But it didn’t last.

It was Tampa 2-2 at 12:16 — still in the opening period — on a Nick Paul mid-range shot that just flat-out beat Sergei Bobrovsky into the upper-right corner.

“We know the momentum’s going back and forth,” said Paul between periods.

Mo’ swung back to the Cats 52 seconds into the second period on an Anton Lundell laser slap shot that Aleksander Barkov’s stick sent past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Mo’ then decided it loved Tampa again. Jake Guentzel’s power-play goal 9:56 into the second tied it 3-3, cashing in on a Sam Bennett slashing penalty — and ending a run of 15 straight PP kills by Florida.

Said Barkov after the second period: “We can do a little better on defending and not just throwing the puck away. They’re a high-scoring team. You just can’t give them any time or space.”

That defense toughened in the third, indeed.

Ask me what turned this series for Florida, that’s easy.

It was the Cats’ two third period goals within 11 seconds that turned a 2-1 Game 4 deficit into an eventual 4-2 win. More important, it turned what would have been a 2-2 series heading to Tampa into a 3-1 Panthers advantage. Huge.

Teams up 3-1 in NHL playoff history have had a 90.8 percent likelihood of advancing (317-32).

Florida turned its likelihood to 100 as the series ended Wednesday in a quiet building with only Panthers fans making the noise.

The Panthers were not even a top seed in their own division in these playoffs.

There were doubts if this team was poised for or capable of a long run and a chance to repeat.

Those doubts have vanished.

This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 10:25 PM.