Cote: Road magic! Panthers win 5-3 in Carolina, win East for 3rd straight Stanley Cup Finals | Opinion
The warranted narrative of this Florida Panthers’ postseason had been the team’s stellar play away from home -- airports and hotels somehow foretelling unlikely magic on ice.
That narrative faced an ill-timed dead-end Wednesday night ... but it lives on.
And the repeat-championship dream moves a big step closer.
Florida overcame a 2-0 Game 5 deficit in Raleigh to beat Carolina, 5-3, win the East finals 4-1, and become only the fourth team since 1980 to reach the Stanley Cup Final a third season in a row -- a Cat trick.
The Prince of Wales trophy was brought onto the ice afterward. No Panthers player touched it.
It isn’t the prize they want.
“It’s an odd feeling,” said Brad Marchand. “Excited to win the East, but our job isn’t done.”
Said Matthew Tkachuk: “We got one more job to do. A bigger goal in mind.”
Coach Paul Maurice: “The bigger picture has changed with our group. Three-quarters of the way through, there’s lots more that needs to happen.”
Now the Cats and their fans wait as the West settles a series Edmonton leads over Dallas, 3-1. Will it be a rematch vs. the Oilers and superstar Connor McDavid? Patience. Not quite yet.
That didn’t stop some Carolina fans from chanting “Let’s go Oilers!” after the game.
The latest road-warrior performance makes the Panthers 23-10 on the road in the playoffs the past three postseasons -- the best three-year stretch in NHL history. It’s now 8-2 away in the current playoffs by a 48-21 goals margin, with a fifth straight win (while the home record this postseason is a pedestrian 4-3 including a 3-0 loss in Game 4).
Florida tied an NHL record with a fifth straight road playoff game of five-plus goals.
Florida had big-scorer and special-teams ace Sam Reinhart back Wednesday after two games out injured. Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer also were back after missing Game 4. Florida had not been healthier this entire postseason. They were playing for a spot in the Final. They had every reason to be at their best.
They were not early.
Carolina thoroughly deserved its early lead, to the exact same degree Florida deserved its hole.
The Hurricanes dominated early. Also true: Both of Carolina’s first two goals were off bad mistakes by Florida.
The Hurricanes led 1-0 just 4:39 into the game after a glaringly awful giveaway by Gustav Forsling. Attempting a pass he put the puck right on the blade of Sebastian Aho, who cashed a 1-on-1 rush against Sergei Bobrovsky. The lead was not unearned. The Hurricanes came out with unmatched intensity and had the game’s first eight shots.
Carolina was up 2-0 late in the first on another Aho goal, this off a Mikkola giveaway.
The reigning champions were not done, of course.
Turned out, they were just getting started.
“We always have a ton of belief,” said Tkachuk -- who started the rally.
The Panthers’ lately dormant power play unlimbered and roared to life on a Tkachuk tip-in off an Aaron Ekblad shot. (Reinhart’s stick was also there for the re-direct.) Cats had missed 10 straight man-advantage chances before that huge one.
Thirty seconds later in the second period, it was 2-2 on an Evan Rodrigues wrist shot off service from Sam Bennett and Tkachuk.
Florida had its first lead at 3-2 soon after in the second on Anton Lundell’s tip-in off a Marchand bullet.
What did Maurice tell his team up 3-2 entering the third period?
“Enjoy every minute of it,” he said. “They’re up two, we didn’t panic.”
The enjoyment paused when Carolina tied it 3-3 around mid-third period when Seth Jarvis’ wrist shot beat Bobrovsky over his right shoulder.
The enjoyment returned on Carter Verhaeghe’s snap shot goal with 7:39 to play -- set up by a gorgeous sequence by captain Aleksander Barkov.
“A star player making a star play!” the announcer raved of Barkov on TNT.
“He’s so elite,” said Verhaeghe of Barkov. “Barky is so strong on the puck. He did his thing, took on one guy, then two, and gave me the puck with a pretty open net. That was all him.”
Maurice of Barkov: “He picks his spots. He can sense when it’s the right time.”
Sam Bennett with the fifth goal on an empty netter and Bobrovsky’s brilliant play late sealed the triumph.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour afterward called the Panthers “the standard” and “another level,” adding, “You’re not giving Florida enough credit.”
A third straight conference title -- the doorstep of a league championship -- demands respect. South Florida sports history says so.
The Panthers had never accomplished that until Wednesday, until now, and the feat has been done only twice before in this sports market: By the Miami Dolphins with three straight AFC championships in 1971-73, and by the Heat with four straight NBA East titles in 2011-14.
As for a sneak-peek ahead to the Cup Finals:
Dallas as is seen by many as having a deeper roster and better goaltending, but Edmonton is up for a reason. The Oilers have ice-god McDavid -- and they’d lay claim to the revenge advantage after losing to the Panthers in seven games in last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
For what it’s worth (not a lot), Florida was 2-0 vs. both teams in the regular season.
Florida is reigning NHL champion. Dallas’ lone crown came in 1999. Edmonton has won five times, but last in 1990. Only two current Cats, Marchand and Bobrovsky, were alive then, both aged 2 or younger.
That’s getting ahead of ourselves.
For now, the playoff road magic continues, and the road leads to a third straight Stanley Cup Finals.
The job isn’t finished, but Paul Maurice allowed himself a moment late Wednesday to reflect upon, and savor, what the past few seasons have meant to him.
“I’ve had more fun and learned more about life and hockey in the last three years from these players,” he said. “It’s been life-altering. I try to choose my words carefully. It’s been life-altering.”
The surreal journey goes on.
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM.
