SUNRISE, Fla. — Sixteen players were ejected and 312 penalty minutes were doled out in a preseason rematch between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. The Panthers won 7-0 over the Lightning.
The teams played each other on Thursday night and accumulated 186 penalty minutes in a 5-2 Lightning victory over the Panthers, sparked by Panthers forward A.J. Greer’s cross-check and punch on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel. But on Saturday, the Lightning and Panthers reached the 200-minute mark for penalties by the end of the second period.
“The two Florida teams have had a lot of success in this league the last six years,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “And I think anybody that’s been a part of this rivalry would probably look at this box score and not be surprised and be like, I can’t believe it’s taken this long for something like that to happen. It’s two extremely proud franchises and the boys played with their heart on their sleeves. That’s all I can say.”
While the Lightning ended the game 0-for-6 on the power play, the Panthers scored four times on 17 power-play opportunities. The NHL record for most penalty minutes in a game between both teams is 419 minutes, set between the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers in March 2004.
“Well, we really got to work on our penalty kill. Seventeen kills. I don’t think I’ve seen that in a long time,” Cooper said.
“I don’t think I’ve been a part of a game like this in a while, maybe Montreal and Ottawa. But this is quite the rivalry so far,” Florida defenseman Jeff Petry said to Panthers rinkside reporter Katie Engleson.
YOU CAN’T LOOK AWAY FROM THE BATTLE OF FLORIDA FOR ONE SECOND 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/mS2STEIxF3
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 4, 2025
Arguably the game’s strangest moment occurred in the third period. Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola was given a game misconduct at 4:01 of the third, but continued to play and assisted on a Jesper Boqvist goal at 8:52 to extend Florida’s lead to eight goals. Much later, 14:55 into the third, the NHL removed the goal from the scoreboard and the Panthers were penalized for icing an ineligible player.
It took a little over two minutes into Saturday’s game before either team recorded a major penalty. Lightning forward Scott Sabourin was ejected after cross-checking Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad to the face after body-checking him. Sabourin also launched punches toward the Panthers defender. Minutes later, Carter Verhaeghe was ejected after boarding Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons before another scuffle broke out. Two more Lightning defensemen, J.J. Moser and Roman Schmidt, were given game misconducts before the period ended after dangerous hits of their own. The remaining 12 ejections were spread out between the second and third periods.
“You always have a concern when you are down to five or six forwards; that’s dangerous,” Panther coach Paul Maurice said. “But we got through it.
“The league will look at that, handle it the same way they do in the playoffs. I’ll leave it at that.”
Partway through the game, the Lightning were down to three skaters on their bench.
“That was a first for me,” Cooper said. “I think we had more coaches than players on the bench at one point.”
“It just got silly, got stupid,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “By the end of it, it wasn’t really hockey out there.”
Florida will begin its season on Tuesday night against Chicago, when it will hoist its championship banner at Amerant Bank Arena. Tampa Bay will begin its season Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators, who were in a feisty preseason battle of their own last Tuesday.
(Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP Photo)
