At the other end of the ice, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 29 of 32 shots for Columbus.
"I think we put on a show today," Bobrovsky said of the goalie duel. "He made two unbelievable saves. Everybody in the building thought they went in, but he somehow kept them out. It definitely gives you energy, gives you a little bit extra kind of motivation to compete. I thought it was a great performance."
After the top line wore the Blue Jackets down with a monster shift to start the game, it was the fourth line that actually opened the scoring for the Panthers tonight. Skating into the center of the left circle, Juho Lammikko slipped a backhand shot under Korpisalo's pads to make it 1-0 at 4:59 of the first period.
Extending the lead in the second period, Aaron Ekblad blasted a shot on the power play that caught a piece of Patric Hornqvist before floating into the back of the cage to make it a 2-0 game at 2:45. Just three minutes later, however, Michael Del Zotto scored to trim Columbus' deficit down to 2-1 at 5:45.
Notching the first power-play goal of his career, Owen Tippett then regained the two-goal lead for the Cats when he wired home a wrist shot on the man advantage to make it 3-1 with 1:48 left in the second.
"A timely power play today, getting the last couple," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said.
With both teams trading chances in the third period, Oliver Bjorkstrand eventually broke through for the Blue Jackets when he tipped a pass into the net to slice Florida's lead down to 3-2 at 11:37. Then, with 3:01 left on the clock, Columbus was sent to the power play, but held in check by the Cats penalty kill.
Following that big kill, Carter Verhaeghe iced the game with an empty-netter to make it 4-2 at 19:37.