{"id":15192,"date":"2025-05-01T12:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T12:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/15192\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T12:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T12:34:10","slug":"panthers-had-the-perfect-three-word-reaction-after-eliminating-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/15192\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers Had the Perfect Three-Word Reaction After Eliminating Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Panthers<\/a> closed out their first-round series against the\u00a0Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> with a 6-3 road win<\/a> in Game 5 on Wednesday night, eliminating their in-state rival for the\u00a0second year<\/a> in a row.<\/p>\n

Eetu Luostarinen earned the first star of the game after recording\u00a0four points<\/a>\u00a0(one goal, three assists) in the win, and Florida advanced to the second round<\/a> for the fourth consecutive<\/a> postseason.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Minutes after the final horn, the Panthers posted a clever three-word\u00a0message on X<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cClear skies ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The caption was paired with an image of a panther holding a crystal bottle containing a lightning bolt\u2014a clear jab at Tampa\u2019s early exit and a play on the phrase \u201clightning in a bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay opened the scoring<\/a> on Wednesday, but the Panthers tied the game less than three minutes later while taking the lead barely ten minutes into the first period.<\/p>\n

Both teams exchanged goals up to a 3-3 scoreline before Sam Bennett, Luostarinen, and Sam Reinhart scored three unanswered goals for the Panthers, effectively sealing their win and clinching the series.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Coach Paul Maurice spoke highly<\/a> of both teams after the game, noting the intensity of the all-Florida matchup.<\/p>\n

“Two teams right in their prime, very competitive men,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cTampa has had success, so it got nasty this year because of the playoffs last year and the fact that we’re rivals, but we’re also in the same place with our teams … legitimate teams.”<\/p>\n

\"Tampa<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) and Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) battle for the puck at Amerant Bank Arena.Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The defending champions have now eliminated Tampa in back-to-back playoffs as the Panthers try to make a third consecutive run toward the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have an exceptional team,\u201d Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said<\/a>. \u201cIt was our turn (from 2020 to 2022<\/a>). Now, it\u2019s theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Florida will face either<\/a> the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Ottawa Senators in the second round<\/a>. Toronto leads that series 3\u20132 with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Related: Lightning Coach’s Immediate Reaction to Series Loss to Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: NHL Announces Multigame Suspension After Panthers-Lightning<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Panthers closed out their first-round series against the\u00a0Tampa Bay Lightning with a 6-3 road win in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[8219,235,260,2567,8217,8215,7,6,8221,8223,236,8216,8220,8218,209,704,8214,8222],"class_list":{"0":"post-15192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-anton-lundell","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-eetu-luostarinen","13":"tag-florida-panthers","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nikita-kucherov","17":"tag-ottawa-senators","18":"tag-panthers","19":"tag-paul-maurice","20":"tag-sam-bennett","21":"tag-sam-reinhart","22":"tag-tampa","23":"tag-tampa-bay","24":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","25":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114432604244786178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}