SERGEI BOBROVSKY

Paul Maurice’s journey toward becoming the new coach of the Florida Panthers included a fortuitous flick of the remote control, plus was aided by a college admissions department.

SUNRISE, Fla. — (AP) — There will be a Presidents’ Trophy banner hanging over the Florida Panthers’ home ice next season. And the earliest that the Panthers will again have to hear about a 26-year drought between playoff series wins is in 2048. On those levels, it was a tremendous season for the Panthers. The best team in hockey’s regular season fell well short of its goal in the postseason. Thornton came to Florida with hopes of finally hoisting a Stanley Cup; time will tell if he has one more season in him.

There will be a Presidents’ Trophy banner hanging over the Florida Panthers’ home ice next season.

Vasilevskiy won his sixth straight game, a streak that began with the Lightning facing a 3-2 series deficit in the opening round. The Lightning joined the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens as the only franchises to win at least 10 consecutive playoff series. NOTES: The Panthers outshot the Lightning 17-3 in the first period and 34-15 through the second. It was the 42-year-old, six-time All-Star’s 187th career playoff game — second-most among active NHL players. He hasn’t played since being injured during the Lightning’s opening-round Game 7 victory over Toronto.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had 49 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning completed a four-game sweep of the Florida Panthers with a 2-0 victory that sends the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions back to the Eastern Conference final for the sixth time in eight years.

It could be pop country artist Kane Brown's fault if their series ends less than a week before it started. An arena conflict in Tampa with Brown's concert forced Games 3 and 4 to be played back to back. It's been all Tampa Bay since, with Florida scoring a total of three goals through three games. Credit reigning playoff MVP goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and his Lightning teammates who are blocking shots, but for whatever reason the situation is dire for the Panthers. That streak ended with a loss to Tampa Bay, which is on the verge of reaching the Eastern Conference final for a fourth time in five seasons.

The Florida Panthers are on the brink of getting swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the back-to-back defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Panthers Lightning Hockey Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak (81) watches his shot get past Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for a goal during the second period in Game 3 of an NHL hockey second-round playoff series Sunday, May 22, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. Game 4 is Monday night at Amalie Arena, where the Lightning have won three of four games this postseason. Sam Reinhart scored Florida’s lone goal in Game 3, snapping a puzzling 0-for-25 start to the playoffs for the Panthers’ power play. Kucherov and Stamkos added empty-net goals in the final four minutes after the Panthers removed Bobrovsky in favor of an extra attacker. NOTES: With his 50th career playoff goal, Perry moved ahead of Brad Marchant and Patrick Bergeron into sole possession of sixth place among active career playoff goal leaders.

Steven Stamkos scored two goals and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 to move to the brink of another trip to the Eastern Conference final.

Ross Colton scored with just under four seconds remaining, giving the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 victory in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, Andrei Vasilevskiy remained red-hot with 34 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning topped the Florida Panthers 4-1 in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The Florida Panthers found what made them the NHL's best regular-season team just in time to win the franchise's first playoff series in 26 years.

T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also got a goal from Justin Schultz and two assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Bobrovsky slammed the door from there, Giroux scored the insurance goal at 15:55, and the Comeback Cats had done it again. This was the season of the comeback for Florida, which had an NHL-best 29 come-from-behind wins during the regular season. In a span of 7:51, Florida went from down three and in huge trouble to tied going into the third. That would be the Florida Panthers.

Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a five-point night and the Florida Panthers escaped a three-goal deficit to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.

Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 to tie the first-round series.

The pressure is squarely on the Florida Panthers, New York Rangers and Calgary Flames down two games to one in their respective first-round series.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon)The NHL playoffs are missing the close games and comebacks that seemingly come annually with all the postseason intensity. “The score of the game doesn’t matter if it’s 2-1 triple-overtime or a little more lopsided,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. That is one game.”HURRICANES at BRUINS, Carolina leads series 2-1 (12:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN)Carolina and Boston are managing injury concerns. WILD at BLUES, Minnesota leads series 2-1 (4:30 p.m. EDT, TBS)The St. Louis Blues have taken another hit to their blue line. “We have to look at it 2-1,” Kings center Phillip Danault said.

The NHL playoffs are missing the close games and comebacks that seemingly comes annually with all the postseason intensity.

Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers topped the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night to even their Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.

Claude Giroux and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, which has not won the opening game of a postseason series since 1997. The Panthers argued for an icing call that didn’t come on the play where the game got tied. Bennett tied the game late in the first, Giroux made it 2-1 in the second, but the Panthers were blanked the rest of the way. The penalty on Gudas at 0:49 of the first was the third-fastest opening penalty Florida had committed this season. Jonathan Huberdeau was called for roughing 20 seconds into a game on March 24, Gustav Forsling for hooking 25 seconds into a game on Nov. 27.

T.

The eight playoff teams in the Eastern Conference have been set since before the All-Star break.

Brandon Montour scored 2:26 into overtime and the NHL-leading Florida Panthers extended their winning streak to a franchise-record 13 games by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night.

Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and the Florida Panthers tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2.

Ethan Bear scored the game’s first goal with 5:40 left and Sebastian Aho added an empty-netter to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 on Thursday night.

The Florida Panthers were undeterred — again. Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored in a shootout, and the Panthers continued their string of comebacks by rallying to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 on Saturday. Ville Husso made a career-best 48 saves for the Blues, who got goals from Brandon Saad, Logan Brown and Jake Walman. O'Reilly had two assists for St. Louis. UP NEXTThe teams play again in St. Louis on Tuesday.

Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored in a shootout, and the Florida Panthers continued their string of comebacks by rallying from three one-goal deficits to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3.

Aleksander Barkov scored in overtime and the Florida Panthers — playing a day after coach Joe Quenneville resigned amid a sex scandal — beat Detroit 3-2 on Friday to run their season-opening winning streak to eight.

Aleksander Barkov and the Florida Panthers have agreed on an $80 million, eight-year contract extension with an annual cap hit of $10 million.

The New York Rangers locked up their goaltending by agreeing to sign Igor Shesterkin to a four-year $22.6 million contract.

The Florida Panthers entrusted their season to a rookie goalie making his playoff debut.

The Lightning scored on three of seven shots in the first period Saturday. The Panthers replaced Bobrovsky with Chris Driedger after Killorn scored on the power play and added another goal off a pass from Steven Stamkos to increase the lead to 5-1. He and Stamkos, who had two assists Saturday, have at least one point in each game of the series. ON THE BRINKThe Panthers will have to win three straight against the defending champs to end the franchise’s 25-year drought without a series win. On the other hand, the Panthers have never rallied to win a series after dropping the first two games.

Alex Killorn scored a pair of second-period goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning rebounded from its first postseason loss to rout the Florida Panthers 6-2 and take a commanding 3-1 lead in the first-round Central Division playoff matchup.

Ryan Lomberg scored on a breakaway 5:56 into overtime to cap a furious comeback and give the Florida Panthers a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of their first-round playoff matchup.

Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has stopped 63 of 65 shots from the Minnesota Wild over the first two games of their West Division playoff series.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots, Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat had first-period goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Central Division first-round playoff series.

The first-ever playoff game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers could be tough to top.

Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals in his first appearance of the season, and Blake Coleman scored a short-handed goal. Point tied it at 4 with seven minutes to go on his power-play goal and then got the winner when he skated in on a breakaway and backhanded the puck past Bobrovsky. The Lightning took a 1-0 lead on Coleman’s short-handed goal 16 seconds later. The Panthers tied it at 1 on Barkov’s power-play goal at 9:41, and Verhaeghe put them ahead with 3:29 left in the first. The second period ended with a fighting scrum in front of the Tampa Bay net.

Brayden Point scored two late goals, including the game-winner with 1:14 left in the third period, to lift the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning over the Florida Panthers 5-4 to take Game 1 of their playoff series.

There used to be a thing called the Governor’s Cup, a trophy presented to whichever team won the annual regular season series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Florida’s 6-1-2 start through nine games is the second-best in franchise history, topped only by the 6-0-3 record to open the 1996-97 season. “We've been consistent in most games," Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. Starting poorly, however, has pretty much snuffed out some Panthers seasons before they even started. The five Florida teams that went to the playoffs — 1995-96, 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2011-12 and 2015-16 — averaged 12 standings points through the season’s first nine games. There’s obviously a long way to go, but the Panthers finally have the start they wanted.