‘We need one more’: Panthers know series isn’t over yet even with 3-0 lead on Carolina
The Florida Panthers have a commanding lead in the Eastern Conference final after three commanding wins over the Carolina Hurricanes to start the best-of-7 series.
5-2 in Game 1 on Tuesday.
5-0 in Game 2 on Thursday.
And then 6-2 in Game 3 on Saturday.
But the Panthers know the job isn’t finished yet.
“What I take from it is we won three, but it doesn’t take three to win a series,” Panthers star winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “That’s the simplest answer I’ve got. We need one more, and it’s the hardest one to win.”
And that’s the mindset this Panthers team will take into Game 4 on Monday (8 p.m., TNT, truTV, Max) in its first attempt to wrap up this series and secure a spot in the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive season.
It’s the mindset they have taken all playoffs. Until a series is formally wrapped up, until a team gets that coveted fourth win, everything is still up for grabs.
The Panthers have been on both sides of that situation already this year.
They played from ahead in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, going up 2-0 and 3-1 in the series with their in-state rival before wrapping things up in five games.
They fell behind 2-0 against the Toronto Maple Leafs before rattling off three consecutive wins, dropping Game 6 and then needing a winner-take-all Game 7 to move out of the second round.
And now they’re fully in the driver’s seat in the Eastern Conference final against a Hurricanes team that has looked outmatched the majority of the series.
The Panthers haven’t trailed at any point through the first three games. Over 180 minutes of game action, Florida has led for 151:24 and the games have been tied for just 28:36.
It’s the third time in the past three playoffs Florida has had a 3-0 series lead. In 2023, Florida swept this same Hurricanes team in this same round on its way to the Stanley Cup Final. And last year, the Panthers went up 3-0 on the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final before Edmonton won three consecutive games to force Game 7, which Florida ultimately won.
So, no, the Panthers aren’t taking anything for granted right now.
“That’s part of our collective experience,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “understanding what a Game 4 feels like when you’re up three.”
It’s why Florida’s mentality is so important. The killer instinct to wrap up a series is crucial.
So, too, is prioritizing that moment and not looking at what’s on the horizon even when the next stage seems to be right in front of them.
“You don’t think about that,” veteran forward Brad Marchand said. “We’re prepared to go seven here. I think the biggest thing for this group is we’re really good at just focusing on what we need to do, staying in the moment and not looking ahead. You can’t start looking ahead. It’s such a dangerous game to play, but what we’re really good at is just coming in, preparing the right way. You have a lot of guys who have been through these moments before and know how to deal with them. You just rely on that and come in and try to do our job. It doesn’t mean that everything’s gonna go our way, but you prepare to control the things you can.”
The Panthers have certainly controlled things throughout the conference final, with Saturday perhaps being the biggest testament to how much this team is built for this stage.
Florida and Carolina were tied 1-1 through two periods. Each team had 39 shot attempts. The Hurricanes had two more shots on goal (17-15) but the Panthers had five more scoring chances (20-15).
But once the third period started, the Panthers flipped a switch. They scored 1:29 into the final frame on Jesper Boqvist’s backhanded shot from the slot after slicing through the offensive zone to put Florida up 2-1.
Niko Mikkola and Aleksander Barkov then scored 29 seconds apart to put Florida up 4-1 with 13:05 left to play.
And then Barkov and Marchand scored 1:06 apart to wrap up the Panthers’ five-goal flurry and extend the lead to 6-1 with 9:23 remaining on the clock.
Five goals in 9:08.
“Stick with it,” Barkov said of the team’s mentality going into the third period. “Stick with the game plan. We knew we needed to be a little better than we were in the second period. We kept trying to keep things simple and, I think, we got rewarded.”
The real reward is still one win away.
The job’s not finished, and the Panthers know that.
“You never know how things are gonna go,” he said. “There’s so many things that you can’t control in playoffs that can dictate the outcome of a series, and we’ve been fortunate with some bounces and some calls and stuff like that that have helped us get to the point we’re at. But we haven’t achieved anything yet. Until you win everything, you accomplish nothing.”
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