Four players each scored three points for the Panthers.
The Florida Panthers will take a 2-0 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.
According to NHL 25, the Panthers will dominate a majority of the game and overcome a few shaky moments to defeat the Canes 7-4.
Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Alexander Barkov, and Sam Bennett all scored three points for Florida. Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk both scored twice for the Panthers. Depth was clearly the name of the game.
Sebastian Aho, Jesper Fast, Seth Jarvis, and Logan Stankoven scored for Carolina.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves and Frederik Andersen stopped 37 of 44 shots.
First Period
Tkachuk took an early penalty for Florida, but Carolina was unable to convert on the man-advantage. However, 3:35 into the game, it was Tkachuk who put Florida on the board first. It happened when Andrei Svechnikov lost control of the puck along the boards. It was gathered up by Carter Varhaeghe, who fed Tkachuk in the slot for a sweet backhander that beat Andersen glove side.
Svechnikov continued to get into trouble, but this time, it was for a disciplinary problem when he elbowed Seth Jones in the back of the head. The Panthers subsequently scored on the power play when Sam Reinhart scored off a Tkachuk rebound to make it 2-0.
Just over six minutes into the game, Carolina got on the board in a weird sequence. Shayne Gostisbehere attempted to clear the puck from outside the blue line and the shot bounced off Jones, who had his back turned to the play. Stankoven sprinted through the neutral zone, picked up the loose puck, and beat Bobrovsky to make it a 2-1 game.
Fluke or not, the Panthers went right back to crashing the net and poured the pressure on Andersen. After Gustav Forsling’s shot from the point bounced off one of his teammates, Bennett picked up the loose puck from along the boards and looked for an open man. He found Verhaeghe in the slot by the left circle, and he snapped a shot that beat Andersen five-hole to make it a 3-1 score.
Carolina applied intelligent aggression late, but Bobrovsky continued to come up with spectacular saves to keep them out of the net.
At the end of the first, Florida held a 3-1 lead.
Second Period
The Canes came out firing to begin the second frame, but all of that forward progression came to a halt when Jacob Slavin was whistled for holding Reinhart. And on the power play, Tkachuk scored his second goal of the game to extend their lead to three.
Bennett made it 5-1 Florida when he one-timed a pass from Verhaeghe, who found him in the slot from behind the net. The initial play started at center ice when Brad Marchand intercepted a pass from Jordan Staal and took it the other way before dishing a pass to Verhaeghe.
And of course, with how video game simulations go, sometimes you get a cold taste of Frostbite, which tends to lead you down a path of ridiculousness. Both teams took turns fouling one another as the scoreboard would transition from power play to 4-on-4 at various times. The luck of the draw finally benefitted the Canes when Aho carried the puck through the neutral zone, but had two Panther defenders closing in on him. From there, he did a drop pass to Jarvis, who subsequently played a game of chicken with the defenders. He slowed the pace down and moved the puck from the backhand to the forehand, all while Bobrovsky was trying to figure out where the puck would go. He guessed wrong, and Jarvis beat him with a wrister top shelf to make it a three-goal deficit.
Florida would score again moments later. After Bennett was rejected on the initial shot, he gained control of the loose puck and passed it to Jones, who set up Reinhart for a one-timer from the left circle, but the shot didn’t have a lot of mustard on it. However, Andersen was unable to contain the rebound and Barkov came charging in from the right side and batted in the rebound to make it a 6-2 game.
Third Period
To Carolina’s credit, they refused to give up, and Florida got a little lazy. After the Panthers took a series of silly penalties, the Canes finally capitalized when Fast scored to put them within three goals.
After Thachuk was boxed for cross-checking, Aho scored on the power play to make it 6-4. Svechnikov fed Blake from behind the net, but Bobrovsky made the save. However, the puck trickled away, and Aho was ready for it from the left slot and shot at a wide-open net and hit nothing but that.
But it was too little, too late. The Panthers added their seventh and final goal of the game, when Reinhart fed Bennett for his second of the night, and it was a beautiful snap shot that beat Andersen top shelf.
The Panthers played it safe for the final eight minutes and ran out the clock, and took a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final.
Takeaways
We could definitely see the game playing out this way. The Panthers are the strongest and the most physical team in the NHL right now. And to boot, they have incredible depth. It’s going to be hard for Carolina to do much in this series, as they lack both the depth and the goaltending.