Dominant third period turns close Game 3 into another Panthers rout over Hurricanes
After a pair of blowout wins to begin the Eastern Conference final, the Florida Panthers were finally tested in Game 3 by the Carolina Hurricanes.
Well, for two periods.
But in the end, the Panthers’ depth pushed them over their opponent — and pushed them within one win of a return to the Stanley Cup Final.
Forward Jesper Boqvist, who returned to the lineup with star winger Sam Reinhart sidelined with a lower-body injury, scored the go-ahead goal to start a five-goal onslaught in the third period to lift Florida to a 6-2 win over the Hurricanes on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers are now up 3-0 in the best-of-7 series and are one win from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive season. Game 4, their first chance to wrap up the series, is at 8 p.m. Monday from Amerant Bank Arena.
“In the third period,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said, “we took over.”
Boqvist’s goal, scored 1:29 into the third period, came after defenseman Aaron Ekblad forced a turnover at center ice. He fed the puck to Evan Rodrigues, who tapped the puck to Boqvist in stride entering the offensive zone. Boqvist charged down the ice and maneuvered past Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov before burying a pass past Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov.
“I’m impressed with his game because there’s an expectation of what he can do,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s good that he’s coming with Barkov. It’s a certain style that he excels at. But as good as it is for him, it’s also good for all the other players that are in the lineup right now to see how important you are, how critically important you are. You say to all those guys ‘Stay ready’ and then they say ‘Well, I’ve been ready.’”
It’s the second time this postseason Boqvist has drawn into the lineup and played on Florida’s top line due to a player being injured.
It was the case in Games 5 and 6 of the second round against Toronto when Rodrigues was sidelined. He stepped up there with a goal and an assist in Game 5.
And he did it again on Saturday.
“Obviously [feels] great,” Boqvist said. “Huge win for us. Glad I could help a little bit.”
Florida was just getting started.
Niko Mikkola made it 3-1 on a shot from the left circle on a feed from Sam Bennett 6:26 in to the third period. Mikkola also opened scoring 12:07 into regulation on backhanded shot that deflected off Orlov’s stick and past Kochetkov, who started over Frederik Anderen on Saturday. It was just the second multi-goal game of Mikkola’s career. However, Mikkola left the game in the third period after crashing into the boards, holding his right shoulder.
“We think he’s going to be OK,” Maurice said.
And then Barkov scored twice — at 6:55 and 9:31 of the period — to push the lead to 5-1.
And then Brad Marchand scored on a two-on-one with Anton Lundell at 10:37 of the third period to make it 6-1.
That’s five goals in a span of 9:08 to go from a tied game to an absolute rout.
“We played more the style of game [in the third period] that we did in the first couple [games],” Marchand said. “We got back to the way we needed to play to have success. Guys made big plays at the right time.”
Carolina’s only responses came on the power play. The first was with 5:09 left in the second period when Logan Stankoven got a rebound of a Brent Burns shot and sent it just over Sergei Bobrovsky’s left pad to tie the game at 1-1. Bobrovsky, who stopped the first 13 shots he faced to begin the game, had robbed Stankoven of a Grade A chance earlier in the period.
The Hurricanes’ Seth Jarvis then scored on the power play with 8:59 left to cut Florida’s lead to 6-2.
By that point, though, the game was all but over.
Bobrovsky stopped 23 of 25 shots he faced for his seventh consecutive game allowing no more than two goals. He has a .952 save percentage (159 saves on 167 shots against) in that span. That includes a .962 save percentage (125 saves on 130 shots against) at 5 on 5.
The Panthers did it on Saturday without Reinhart, their top goal scorer from the past two seasons and one of three finalists this year for the Selke Trophy given annually to the league’s best defensive forward.
And they did it for the majority of the game without forward Eetu Luostarinen, who was ejected late in the first period after boarding Carolina’s Jackson Blake. That left Florida without two of its top penalty-killing forwards.
“It was a grind again,” Lundell said. “But I think once again, it showed us our depth and how guys are able to step up. ... Great team effort.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM.
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