Top-seeded Florida Panthers' season ends after sweep by Tampa Bay Lightning

The Florida Panthers have been swept out of the NHL postseason, falling 2-0 to host Tampa Bay in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Monday.

Florida was the NHL's top-seeded team entering the playoffs, having earned the franchise's first Presidents' Trophy title on the strength of a 122-point campaign. The Panthers are now the first Presidents' Trophy winners to be swept from a playoff series since the 2019 Lightning were ousted by Columbus in the first round.

Game 4 was a scoreless affair most of the way, until Patrick Maroon tipped a point blast from Zach Bogosian past Sergei Bobrovsky in the third period. Ondrej Palat added an empty-netter in the final minute to seal Florida's fate.

The Panthers built their historic regular season on offensive success, pacing the NHL in average scoring (4.11 goals per game) thanks to enviable depth upfront. They were not shut out once through 82 games. In fact, the last time Florida did not score a goal in a game prior to Monday was Game 6 of their first-round series against Tampa last spring.

But all that firepower failed Florida when it mattered most.

The Panthers stumbled their way past Washington in the first round, winning in six games but requiring multiple come-from-behind performances to do so. That effort wouldn't suffice against reigning two-time Cup champion Tampa Bay.

Florida didn't score more than one goal in any of the four games against Tampa Bay. All the Panthers' top performers continuously came up empty. Jonathan Huberdeau was one of four 30-plus goal scorers in the Panthers' regular season and led the team with 115 points. He added only two assists against Tampa. Aleksander Barkov and Claude Giroux tallied one assist each. Sam Reinhart