Panthers oust Lightning in 5 games, advance to 2nd round - ESPN

SUNRISE, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves, Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had two goals and an assist, and the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 in Game 5 on Monday night to clinch their first-round series and advance in the NHL playoffs.

Niko Mikkola had a goal and an assist, Evan Rodrigues also scored and Matthew Tkachuk had two assists for the Panthers, who won a playoff series against Tampa Bay for the first time in franchise history and clinched a postseason series at home for only the fourth time. Florida bested Boston and Philadelphia on home ice in the first two rounds of the 1996 playoffs, then eliminated Carolina at home in last season's Eastern Conference finals en route to their second Stanley Cup Final appearance.

The Panthers made it past the opening round of the playoffs for a franchise-best third straight year. Florida has won five series over the past three postseason, the most among all teams over that span.

The Panthers' six goals were their most in a series-clinching game in franchise history (previous high was four). It was also just the second time in franchise history that the Panthers had multiple multi-goal scorers in a playoff game (first time was May 18, 1996 — Game 1 of Eastern Conference Finals vs. Pittsburgh — Tom Fitzgerald, Dave Lowry).

Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning, which was eliminated in the first round for the second straight year after reaching the Final three straight years. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots.

Barkov gave Florida a 2-0 lead when he pounced on a rebound for a short-handed goal — his first of the playoffs — at 7:22 of the second period. He added another at 8:54 of a four-goal third to restore the Panthers' two-goal cushion