Sergei Bobrovsky shuts out Lightning as Panthers take 2-0 series lead

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on Apr 24, 2025

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 19 shots he faced to lead the Florida Panthers to a 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series at Amalie Arena.

Florida is now up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series after opening the series with a 6-2 win on Tuesday. The matchup now shifts to Sunrise. Game 3 is at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Game 4 is at 7 p.m. Monday.

But in the midst of it all, the Panthers played the final 10 minutes without captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov, who was leveled by the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel behind the net. Hagel was handed a five-minute major penalty for interference on the play with 10:09 left to play, and Barkov went to the dressing room under his own power but did not return to the game.

As for Bobrovsky, he now has four career postseason shutouts, all of which have come over the past three years.

A combination of stingy defense in front of him and a slew of missed chances by the Lightning offense proved pivotal to Bobrovsky’s clean sheet. So, too, did Florida going a perfect 5 for 5 on the penalty kill and allowing Tampa Bay to record just two shots on goal when playing with a man advantage.

Defenseman Nate Schmidt opened scoring for Florida, ripping a one-timer from just above the right circle past Andrei Vasilevskiy 4:15 into regulation. The shot came off a pass from Sam Reinhart after a Barkov faceoff win in the offensive zone. Sam Bennett sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 3.4 seconds left.

Schmidt now has three goals through Florida’s first two playoff games. He is just the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record three goals through a team’s first two games postseason games and the first in 30 years. The other five: Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom (1995), Detroit’s Steve Chiasson (1991), Boston’s Mike O’Connell (1983), Chicago’s Dick Redmond (1973) and Ottawa’s George Boucher (1921).