Apr 28, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period in game four of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Rich Storry-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/88643c9f-375b-410f-926a-9a0ca9255656.jpeg] Apr 28, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period in game four of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Rich Storry-Imagn Images) The Florida Panthers picked up one of their most unbelievable and unexpected postseason victories on Monday night in Sunrise. Trailing 2-1 late in the third period to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida scored twice in just 11 seconds to shock the Bolts take Game 4 by a 4-2 final score. Just when it looked like the Lightning were going to tie the series by doing exactly what the Panthers had just done and win both games on the road, Florida took a stranglehold on the series and now needs one more victory to advance to the second round for the fourth consecutive postseason. The battles should only get tougher from here, but for the night, the Cats will enjoy this one. Let’s get to the takeaways: DIFFERENT KIND OF WIN Between the comeback, the circumstances and the players who were the ultimate contributors, there was definitely a feeling that the Panthers stole a win on Monday. Florida allowed two goals in 11 seconds during the second period only to go out and score twice in the exact same amount of time during their furious comeback in the final frame. It’s far from the way the Cats have been winning games during much of Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice’s reign, but as he knows as well as anyone, when it comes to the playoffs, you take the wins however you can get them. “You need different kinds of wins to win a series,” said Maurice. “Your goalie has got to win you a game, your power play has got to win you a game, your penalty kill has got to win you a game, and then you need (Anton) Lundell to score, (Seth) Jones to score, (Aaron) Ekblad to score, not the names that you're always used to, it has to be those guys who step up. They had some big goals the other night from not their top end, that's the driver of this. For all of you who've watched the game for a long time, it's those guys, because they walk into the room differently tomorrow, and everybody's so damn happy for them, especially if they’re the new guys, right? They come in and they want to be a part of it, and they want to be impactful, so those goals are great.” THE MARCHAND EFFECT It’s nothing new for Panthers forward Brad Marchand to be positively impacting a playoff series for his team. He just usually does it in more obvious and apparent ways, ones that more times than not have included scoring big goals and hurting other humans. Currently, the veteran has picked up a pair of assists during Florida’s four postseason games, but the helpers on the ice aren’t the only way he’s been picking up his teammates during the series. “What you don't know and you can't see is that he is up and down our bench the entire third period,” Maurice said of Marchand. “All good stuff. ‘Stay in the fight, fellas,’ just all positive. He's got that, and you need that, because it's quiet, right? You got guys who are playing huge minutes that aren't saying a word because they're recovering on the bench, so you need somebody who just constantly reinforces the positive. The two assists are valuable, but that's equally valuable, because there are just so many situations like tonight in a playoff series where you need that belief when it's going against you, and he was a real driver of that.” COMEBACK CATS MAKE AN APPEARANCE It wasn’t that long ago that the Comeback Cats were a regular thing. But over the past couple seasons, as Maurice’s defensive systems have taken hold with the team, Florida has racked up quite a few more wins and done so without requiring nearly as many comeback attempts. It’s obviously a good thing for many reasons, but it’s still nice to know the Panthers still have it in them to pull one out late if the situation calls for it. “We haven't had one of those since Boston, right?” Maurice said. “Like one of those, full attendance, it's late, you score, the games haven't unfolded like that. And then this year, we didn't have many at all. We were elite at developing a lead and then just holding it, and even that got away from us toward the end, we lost some leads. 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