The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers meet Monday in Game 5 East First Round NHL Playoffs action at the Amerant Bank Arena. Here’s a Tampa Bay Lightning vs Florida Panthers Prediction.

Tampa Bay Lightning Betting Preview

The Tampa Bay Lightning need a win to save their season and force a game 6 on Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.25 goals per game and are scoring on 23.5 percent of their power play opportunities. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 5 goals, Victor Hedman has 6 assists and Nicholas Paul has 12 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3.5 goals per game and are killing 66.7 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has allowed 12 goals on 119 shots faced.

Florida Panthers Betting Preview

The Florida Panthers look for a win here to advance to the second round of the playoffs for a third straight season. The Florida Panthers are averaging 3 goals per game and are scoring on 25 percent of their power play opportunities. Carter Verhaeghe leads Florida with 3 goals, Matthew Tkachuk has 4 assists and Sam Reinhart has 18 shots on goal. Defensively, the Florida Panthers are allowing 2 goals per game and are killing 66.7 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Sergei Bobrovsky has allowed 13 goals on 103 shots faced.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs Florida Panthers Injury Report

Darren Raddysh is questionable for Tampa Bay with an undisclosed issue, while Haydn Fleury is listed as probable. The Panthers will remain without Sam Bennett due to an upper body injury, while Ryan Lomberg is questionable with an illness.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs Florida Panthers Prediction

Give the Lightning some credit for saving their season with a game 4 win and preventing the sweep. Now the series moves back to Sunrise, where the Panthers are 28-13-2 on the year and have won 7 straight games. The Panthers have won 7 of the last 9 games against the Lightning and 4 of those 7 wins were decided by 2 or more goals. The Lightning have won back to back games just once this month. The Panthers are the more talented team, and they’ve been able to find consistent success in this series. The Panthers even had their chances in game 4 despite getting blitzed in the first period. At home, I like the Panthers to advance to the second round for a third straight year.