Panthers wanted to put Hurricanes’ ‘backs against the wall.’ Mission accomplished
The Florida Panthers had just one goal in mind on Thursday. They already took the series opener in the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes in convincing fashion.
Why stop there?
“We want to get greedy,” defenseman Seth Jones said after the team’s pregame morning skate. “We want to come in here and not just roll over and not be OK with playing an OK game just because we stole one on the road. We want to come here, get two [wins] and put their backs against the wall.”
Mission accomplished.
The Panthers flat-out dominated the Hurricanes on Thursday, cruising to a 5-0 win at the Lenovo Center to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series with a spot in a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final at stake.
The series now shifts to Sunrise for Games 3 and 4, with Florida in a position to sweep the Hurricanes in the conference final for the second time in three years.
“We got what we wanted,” Bennett said, “but still obviously lots of work to do. We’re not gonna relax or sit back now. We know it’s gonna get more difficult for sure.”
The Panthers thought that would have been the case on Thursday after their 5-2 win in the series opener on Tuesday. The expectation was the Hurricanes, who had strong underlying metrics in Game 1 but couldn’t finish at the net, would apply pressure early and make the game competitive.
That was far from the case.
Defenseman Gustav Forsling opened scoring 1:17 into regulation to kickstart a three-goal first period despite the team only getting five shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Star winger Matthew Tkachuk broke a 10-game goal drought. Bennett scored twice — with 4:10 left in the first period and again with 39 seconds left in the second — to give him three in the series and nine for the playoffs, moving him into a tie with Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen for the most this postseason. Carter Verhaeghe had three primary assists.
They chased Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen after two periods, with Andersen giving up nine total goals through the first five periods of the series. And for good measure, Aleksander Barkov added a power-play goal in the third period against Pyotr Kochtekov to round out scoring.
“It might have been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite,” Tkachuk said. “It was an unreal start from us. The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets, and that’s just a helluva road trip.”
But perhaps the most dominant aspect of the win came on the defensive end. Florida held Carolina, the team that ranked second in the NHL in the regular season with an average of 31.7 shots on goal per game, to just 17 shots on goal — their lowest single-game mark of the playoffs (the previous was 18 in their 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals on May 15). Sergei Bobrovsky stopped them all for his third shutout of the postseason.
“The guys skated well,” said Bobrovsky, who has a .958 save percentage (136 saves on 142 shots against) and two shutouts over his past six games. “They were always in front of them. They kept Carolina on the outside. It’s a good challenge for us.”
Carolina’s appeared to score a goal in the opening minute of the second period, but it was overturned after Florida successfully challenged that Carolina was offside.
“At 3-1 with 39 minutes left, you’ve got a problem,” Panthers coach Maurice said. “That was a really pivotal moment.”
And Florida succeeded in that challenge despite note having star winger Sam Reinhart for the majority of the game. Reinhart, one of three finalists for the Selke Trophy given annually to the league’s top defensive forward, exited the game after taking a hip check by Carolina forward Sebastian Aho with about five minutes left in the first period and was ruled out with a lower-body injury.
Maurice said Reinhart will be evaluated Friday and will have an update on his status before Game 3 on Saturday.
And the Panthers, even after outscoring the Hurricanes 10-2 through the first two games, aren’t letting the early series lead make a difference in how they approach the games at home. They know Carolina has the potential to flip things quickly if there’s any sense of hesitation.
“There’s not the comfort level that the final score tells you,” Maurice said. “You didn’t feel [it was that lopsided]. ... I will not feel comfortable going into Game 3.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 10:43 PM.
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