Apr 26, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett (9) and Tampa Bay Lightning center Yanni Gourde (37) face off in the first period during game three of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)An entertaining and contentious series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning will continue on Monday night in Sunrise.
Florida picked up a pair of road victories by a combined score of 8-2 last week, but a convincing 5-1 win by Tampa on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena sets us up for what should be an excellent Game 4.
The Lightning will also get Brandon Hagel back in the lineup, which should be a nice boost to a team already feeling pretty good.
Hagel was suspended for one game after an illegal check to Sasha Barkov during the third period of Game 2, one that he was initially handed a five-minute major for interference.
There was some thought that Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk would face similar action after he was called for a five-minute interference major toward the end of Game 4 on Jake Guentzel.
Ultimately, the NHL Department of Player Safety saw enough of a difference between the two hits to deep Tkachuk’s not worthy of disciplinary action.
As the series has progressed, the animosity between the two teams has gradually increased.
With such a pivotal game for both teams about to go down, it’s hard to imagine either taking their foot off the gas.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 4 against the Lightning:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist – Nico Sturm – Mackie Samoskevich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Dmitry Kulikov – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Tomas Nosek, Jaycob Megna, Uvis Balinskis
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