It’s hard to call a play that happens roughly five minutes into the game a turning point, but when the Florida Panthers scored their second goal of the game mere seconds after Yanni Gourde glanced a shot at an open net off of the crossbar, the feeling that it was going to be one of those nights was there. The two early goals, and some key goaltending by Sergei Bobrovsky, forced the Lightning to chase a deficit they could never overcome as they dropped the game 5-2 to the Florida Panthers.
“They jumped on us and we couldn’t recover,” is how Coach Jon Cooper described the start of the game as the Lightning returned home after a four-game road trip. Gifted an early power play, Tampa Bay did a decent job of getting the puck in the zone, something they have struggled with this season. Unfortunately, a deflected shot from Darren Raddysh went right to the Panthers and they were able to counter with an odd-skater rush. Sam Reinhart opted to take the shot, and he snuck one through the pads of Jonas Johansson, who was making his seventh straight start.
The Bolts did generate some chances on the remainder of the power play, but couldn’t score. Gourde had the wonderful look, but when his shot glanced off the crossbar it led to another rush by the Panthers. It was Anton Lundell taking the shot this time and he placed it perfectly inside the far post to make it 2-0.
From there the Lightning were playing catch-up. Did they generate shots? Yes, but a lot of them came from distance and while the rebounds were generated, the Bolts couldn’t get to them. Bobrovsky made the initial save and let his defense make the stop. On the night, Tampa Bay generated 63 shot attempts and 25 scoring chances, but just 6 of them were considered high-danger. Despite having 10 minutes of power-play time they had just one high-danger chance with the extra skater.
To be honest, neither team played all that well for most of the night. Coach Cooper alluded to it, calling it a game between two tired teams. The difference was that Florida converted the chances the Lightning gave them. Case in point – the Panthers third goal. There wasn’t much going on for the second period. The teams had traded fruitless power-play opportunities and the pace of the game had slowed a bit. Florida had a chance off of a rush and Carter Verhaeghe centered a pass that Marchand, who had the slightest of edges on Max Crozier, was able to tap it under Johansson’s pads.
When the Lightning had their chances, they didn’t convert them. A tripping penalty by Curtis Douglas late in the period led to the Panthers third power play of the night, and this one was a charm. Florida won a battle along the boards which led to a centering pass that right on Reinhart’s stick, and he didn’t miss, beating Johansson through the five-hole.
Down four goals, the Lightning did have a bit of a push back. Oliver Bjorkstrand found a big seam that he could feed the puck over to Crozier. The rookie stepped in and let a shot go. With Jake Guentzel in front of him, Bobrovsky never saw the puck go by him and Crozier will be able to tell his grandkids that he beat a hall-of-famer for his first career goal.
The Lightning carried the energy over and had a solid start to the third. Unfortunately, they would play much of the period without Brandon Hagel, who took a forearm/elbow to the head from Seth Jones on an entry attempt. He would skate one shift after the hit, but then hit the locker room for the rest of the night.
The Lightning were undeterred, and J.J. Moser fired one through a crowd that beat Bobrovsky. Florida challenged for goaltender interference, and somewhat surprisingly, the goal stood. Unfortunately, the Lightning couldn’t take advantage of the ensuing power play. Had they scored then, who knows how the game would have turned out.
What they did get was an enraged Jake Guentzel. Jake was battling for a loose puck at the side of the net when Niko Mikkola cleared him out with a forearm shiver to the side of Guentzel’s head. Jake popped up and immediately started throwing hands against a player that is six inches taller and twenty pounds heavier.
Carter Verhaeghe ended any thought of a comeback as he finished off a nice feed from Uvis Balinskis as the two were able to take advantage of Max Crozier who was trying to defend them without a stick.
From there on out, Florida pretty much jammed up the middle of the ice and kept the Lightning from generating anything dangerous. It was interesting that Coach Cooper, who has been known to be aggressive with pulling the goalie with five minutes or more on the clock when the team is down multiple goals chose not to pull Johansson when the Lightning had a power play with just over five minutes to go in the game.
The coach did roll Scott Sabourin and Curtis Douglas over the boards late in the game, but the Panthers didn’t seem interested in engaging with the Lightning’s physical duo. A late slashing penalty by Yanni Gourde had the Bolts short-handed for end of the game and kept things from boiling over too much.
Unlike some of their recent defeats, this wasn’t a case of the Lightning playing well and getting goalied. They started slow and never caught up. It was one of their least impressive performances since early October. The good news is they have a couple of days to reset before taking on the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.
The Goals
Sam Reinhart [16] (Aaron Ekblad) Short-Handed Goal, 1-0 Panthers
Short-handed goal for Florida! Scored by Sam Reinhart with 17:44 remaining in the 1st period. Assisted by Aaron Ekblad. Tampa Bay: 0 Florida: 1 #FLAvsTBL #GoBolts #TimeToHunt
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 8:20 PM
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Anton Lundell [10] (Uvis Balinskis, Seth Jones) 2-0 Panthers
Florida goal! Scored by Anton Lundell with 16:12 remaining in the 1st period. Assisted by Uvis Balinskis and Seth Jones. Tampa Bay: 0 Florida: 2 #FLAvsTBL #GoBolts #TimeToHunt
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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Brad Marchand [19] (Carter Verhaeghe, Aaron Ekblad) 3-0 Panthers
Florida goal! Scored by Brad Marchand with 08:12 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Carter Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekblad. Tampa Bay: 0 Florida: 3 #FLAvsTBL #GoBolts #TimeToHunt
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 8:43 PM
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Sam Reinhart [17] (Mackie Samoskevich) Power Play, 4-0 Panthers
Power play goal for Florida! Scored by Sam Reinhart with 01:52 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Mackie Samoskevich. Tampa Bay: 0 Florida: 4 #FLAvsTBL #GoBolts #TimeToHunt
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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Max Crozier [1]] (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Brayden Point) 4-1 Panthers
"SCORREEE!!! CROZIER!!!" Max Crozier, his first NHL goal! 🚨 #FLAvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 9:08 PM
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J.J. Moser [3] (Brayden Point, Darren Raddysh) 4-2 Panthers
"Holds, shoots, SCORREEE!!! MOSER!!!" Another snipe from Mo! The goal stands after a Panthers challenge as well! #FLAvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
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Carter Verhaeghe [10] (Uvis Balinskis) 5-2 Panthers
Florida goal! Scored by Carter Verhaeghe with 13:23 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Uvis Balinskis. Tampa Bay: 2 Florida: 5 #FLAvsTBL #GoBolts #TimeToHunt
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 9:35 PM
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Highlights
Pretty Colors!
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2025-12-15 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) December 15, 2025 at 9:59 PM
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