NHL playoffs: Lightning-Panthers Game 5 live updates

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Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each scored twice, and the Lightning had two goals waived off in falling 6-1 to the Panthers in Game 5 of their opening-round playoff series Monday night in Sunrise.

Florida won the best-of-seven series four games to one, eliminating Tampa Bay from the playoffs in the first round for the second consecutive season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended the Lightning’s run of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup final with a first-round knockout last season.

Verhaeghe opened the scoring with a goal from the left hashmarks during 4-on-4 play 45 seconds into the second period. He followed up his own shot from the inside of the left circle, beating goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy on the stick side.

Barkov extended the Panthers lead to two with a shorthanded goal at 12:38 of the second. He scored from low in the right circle on a rebound of an Aaron Ekblad shot from the center point.

Less than a minute later, however, Victor Hedman trimmed the Lightning’s deficit to one with a blast from the center point following a long period of sustained pressure in the Panthers zone.

Barkov restored Florida’s two-goal lead with just over nine minutes remaining in the third. Verhaeghe passed the puck into the crease from the right corner and Matthew Tkachuk kept it alive for Barkov, who tucked it under Vasilevskiy.

Evan Rodrigues put the game away with 5:45 remaining, scoring from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Kevin Stenlund.

Verhaeghe and Niko Mikkola later added empty-net goals after the Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker.

Tampa Bay had two goals taken off the scoreboard.

Anthony Cirelli scored from the top of the crease on a rebound of a Hedman shot from slot with seven minutes remaining in the first period. But Florida challenged for goaltender interference, and it was determined that Anthony Duclair made contact with Sergei Bobrovsky, overturning the goal.

Then, with just over two minutes remaining in the second, an apparent Mikhail Sergachev goal from the left point was immediately waived off because Cirelli made contact with Bobrovsky while spinning around in the crease. The Lightning challenged the call, but it was upheld following a replay review.

Here’s how it happened.

Third period

Jam shot by Brandon Hagel goes up and over the net

Habgel shot from left circle gets knocked down in front

Aleksander Barkov shot from left circle saved by Andrei Vasilevskiy

Mitchell Chaffee can’t connect with Nick Paul in low slot

Steven Stamkos takes Gustav Forsling hard into the boards

Brandon Montour shot from right point blocked

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Anton Lundell knocks Anthony Duclair off puck at center ice

Matthew Tkachuck shot from right circle saved by Vasilevskiy

Mikhail Sergachev blocks Nick Cousins shot in front

Brayden Point shot off the rush saved by Bobrovsky

Bobrovsky makes kick save to rob Victor Hedman

Matthew Tkachuk shot from left circle blocked by Erik Cernak

Tyler Motte shot from high slot blocked in front after takeaway in Panthers zone

Crozier loses his helmet as Stenlund goes up over top of him

PANTHERS GOAL: Aleksander Barkov pokes a puck past Vasilevskiy. Carter Verhaeghe passes into the crease, and Matthew Tkachuk keeps it alive for Barkov. Panthers 3, Lightning 1 (8:54 left)

Nikita Kucherov turnaround shot from right point deflected into the netting

Sergei Bobrovsky goes into a split to make glove save on Tanner Jeannot shot from left circle

Anton Lundell just misses with a tip in front off breakaway with Eetu Luostarinen after Brayden Point turnover

Panthers goal: Evan Rodrigues scores from left circle after cross-ice pass from Kevin Stenlund off the rush. Panthers 4, Lightning 1 (5:44 left)

Panthers goal: Verhaeghe scores into an empty net shortly after Vasilevskiy leaves the ice for an extra attacker. Panthers 5, Lightning 1 (3:57 left)

Lightning again pull Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker

Bobrovsky makes save on Hedman shot from high slot

PANTHERS GOAL: Niko Mikkola scores into an empty net. Panthers 6, Lightning 1 (1:10 left)

(Panthers win 6-1, take series 4-1)

Second period

We’ll start the period with 4-on-4 play for two minutes due to the late first-period roughing penalties against Brayden Point and Aaron Ekblad

PANTHERS GOAL: Carter Verhaeghe scores from the slot on his own rebound, beating goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy on the stick side. Panthers 1, Lightning 0 (19:15 left in period)

Vasilevskiy makes blocker save on Gustav Forsling

Panthers power play: Max Crozier penalized for interfering with Sam Reinhart (16:34 left in period)

Anthony Cirelli skates the puck out of the Lightning zone and shoots off a defender out of play

Evan Rodrigues tries to walk out in front, but his shot bounces past the net

Anton Lundell shot from right circle saved by Vasilevskiy

Lightning kill the Crozier penalty. Panthers had one shot on the power play

Rodrigues wraparound attempt blocked at the post by Matt Dumba

Crozier closes off Vladimir Tarasenko along the left side boards

Steven Stamkos wrist shot from right side misses wide

Erik Cernak breaks his stick on shot from above right circle

Panthers with sustained pressure during delayed penalty on Lightning

Vasilevskiy stops Montour shot from right circle off the rush

Montour blast from center point tipped wide

Panthers power play: Emil Lilleberg penalized for hooking Montour (11:43 left)

Verhaeghe shot from left circle misses wide

Lightning send the puck down the ie

Verhaeghe shot from left point saved by Vasilevskiy

Verhaeghe wrist shot saved by Vasilevskiy

Lightning kill the Lilleberg penalty

Mikhail Sergachev one-timer from left point saved by Sergei Bobrovsky

Crozier shot deflected into the corner

Lightning power play: Anton Lundell penalized for high-sticking Steven Stamkos (8:38 left)

Panthers clear the puck down the ice

Panthers again clear the puck

Kevin Stenlund knocks the puck out of the Panthers zone

Lightning ice the puck

PANTHERS GOAL: Aleksander Barkov scores a shorthanded goal from low in the right circle on a rebound of an Aaron Ekblad shot from the center point. Panthers 2, Lightning 0 (7:22)

LIGHTNING GOAL! Victor Hedman scores on slap shot from center point. Panthers 2, Lightning 1 (6:23 left)

Gustav Forsling shot saved by Vasilevskiy

Vasilevskiy stops Verhaeghe on breakaway after he snuck behind the Lightning defense

Forsling slap shot from left point goes off a stick up out of play

Crozier shot from right side boards saved by Bobrovsky

Stretch pass for Anthony Cirelli knocked away

NO GOAL: Apparent Mikhail Sergachev goal from left point is immediately waived off because Anthony Cirelli was in the crease. Lightning, who lost a goal earlier in the game on a Panthers challenge, return the favor with a challenge of their own (2:12 left)

Panthers power play: Lightning penalized for the unsuccessful challenge. Mikey Eyssimont serves the penalty (2:12 left)

Vasilevskiy making one save after another as Panthers pepper the net with shots

Sam Reinhart shot from low in right circle misses wide

Matthew Tkachuk one-timer from right point saved by Vasileskiy

Lightning kill the penalty

(Panthers lead 2-1 after two periods)

First period

Erik Cernak shot from right point blocked in front

Matthew Tkachuk wrist shot from right circle saved by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who then has Brandon Montour go over top of him

Mikey Eyssimont shot blocked by Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Evan Rodrigues shot from left circle saved by Vasilevskiy

Montour is slammed hard into the side boards by Tanner Jeannot and is slow to get up

Tkachuk shot from top of crease saved by Vasilevskiy

Eyssimont quick spinaround shot from left circle saved by Sergei Bobrovsky. Mitchell Chafee is taken into the net, which comes off its moorings

Cernak shot from right point is blocked

Alaksander Barkov pass from right corner to front of net bounces off Sam Reinhart to Vasilevskiy

Lightning power play: Panthers penalized for too many men on the ice. Steven Lorentz will serve the penalty (15:40 left in period)

Brayden Point shot from the slot goes wide of the net

Vasilevskiy makes save on Reinhart shorthaned breakaway attempt

Panthers kill the penalty. Lightning don’t get any shots on goal

Matt Dumba snap shot from right point goes high over the net

Lightning power play: Montour penalized for clipping Tanner Jeannot (10:42 left)

Panthers clear the puck down the ice

Eetu Luostarinen steals puck in Lightning zone but quickly gives it back

Kevin Stenlund skates puck out of the Panthers zone

Panthers send the puck out to center ice

Puck comes out of the offensive zone, resulting in faceoff just outside the blue line

Panthers kill the Montour penalty. No Lightning shots on goal during the power play

Vasilevskiy deflects shot up high

NO GOAL: Lightning’s Anthony Cirelli seems to score from top of crease on rebound of Victor Hedman shot from slot, but Panthers successfully challenge the goal for goaltender interference, as Anthony Duclair makes contact with Bobrovsky (7:00 left)

Panthers power play: Eyssimont penalized for roughing Ekman-Larsson (6:42 left)

Lightning kill the Eyssimont penalty

Stamkos has chances from the left circle and the slot but can’t get the puck past Bobrovsky

Bobrovsky makes blocker save on Chaffee wrist shot from right circle

Cernak wrist shot from right point saved by Bobrovsky

Aaron Ekblad and Brayden Point receive matching roughing minors and head to the locker room

Both teams had seven shots on goal in the period

(Lightning and Panthers tied 0-0 after one period)

No easy out

The Panthers had the Lightning right where they wanted them after the first three games of the series, pushing them to the brink of elimination.

Or did they?

Sure, no team wants to fall so far behind in a series that they leave themselves no room for error.

But then, no team has been better in those situations over the years than the Lightning, either.

Well, OK, one. But the Seattle Kraken have only played in three elimination games (all in 2023), winning two.

Of teams that have a postseason history longer than a year, the Lightning are tied with the Islanders for the best winning percentage in the NHL when facing playoff elimination (57.1), winning 16 of 28 games.

They picked up their 16th in Saturday’s 6-3 victory in Game 4. They’ll need to tack on three more wins to avoid being knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round for a second straight season.

But as head coach Jon Cooper reminded his players after a 5-3 loss Thursday in Game 3 put them in an 0-3 hole, you can’t get back all three games in one night. You win the first one, and then you go from there.

They’ve done the first part.

Tonight, they aim to move on to the second.

They’re still far from where they want to be. But they jumped out to an early lead for the first time in the series in the first period of Game 4, going ahead 3-0, and locked down things down in the third after the Panthers had closed to within 4-3 before putting the game away late.

It was the formula that helped the Lightning to three straight Stanley Cup final appearances from 2020-22, including consecutive championships in ‘20 and ‘21.

Now, the question becomes: Can they repeat it?

They haven’t left themselves any other choice.

Sergachev still finding comfort level

Mikhail Sergachev’s surprise return to the Lightning lineup Saturday night was fueled by the elation of being back on the ice and the adrenaline of playing in the postseason.

After the Lightning kept their season alive by beating the Panthers in Game 4 of the first round, the hope now is that Sergachev can settle in and be himself. While he said he feels fine physically, he’s still finding his way after suddenly jumping into the pace of the postseason.

Read Eduardo A. Encina’s full story here.

The lineups

Pregame scene

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