Panthers Advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the Third Consecutive Time
RALEIGH, N.C. – For the Carolina Hurricanes, the season’s end came in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. For the Florida Panthers, it was just another Wednesday.The Panthers advanced to their third consecutive Stanley Cup Final with a 5-3 victory, overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the first period. Carter Verhaeghe scored the winning goal with 7:39 remaining in regulation, and the team managed to neutralize a Hurricanes power play with three minutes left to play and Carolina’s goalie pulled.
It was an exciting and intense playoff game, which Florida coach Paul Maurice described as possessing “all the elements that make our sport great.” However, the celebration was as usual for the current Stanley Cup champions.They congratulated goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, but avoided any loud jubilation on the ice. The most celebratory thing the Panthers did was wear their conference champion hats, although Verhaeghe joked that if they won a fourth consecutive conference title next season, they might just keep their helmets on.
“I remember a few years ago we felt it was a great achievement. This year, it’s all business,” commented forward Matthew Tkachuk.
Matthew Tkachuk
The Panthers declined to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy for the second consecutive season, after lifting it in 2023. They lost in the Stanley Cup Final that year against the Vegas Golden Knights before defeating the Edmonton Oilers for their first Cup in 2024.
“It worked last year. So this year, the same,” said captain Aleksander Barkov. “This is the place you want to be as a hockey player. You want to play for the Stanley Cup, and once again, we are here for the third consecutive year. That’s a great achievement, but we all know we are here to win bigger things.”
Aleksander Barkov
The Panthers’ business mindset helped them overcome a disastrous start to the game, in which Carolina took a 2-0 lead thanks to two goals by Sebastian Aho. Carolina had a 6-0 record this postseason when scoring first, having done so in Game 4 to extend the series to Raleigh.
Carolina couldn’t capitalize on a power play early in the second period to extend their lead and then saw center Jesperi Kotkaniemi commit a holding penalty in the offensive zone. Tkachuk deflected a shot by Aaron Ekblad 16 seconds into the resulting power play to cut the lead in half. It was the Panthers’ first power-play goal in 11 opportunities over the last three games.“We were outmatched and we were serving pizzas. It didn’t seem like we should have made the playoffs. And then, all of a sudden, we played pretty well,” Maurice said.
Paul Maurice
As is usual with the Panthers, one goal led to multiple goals. Evan Rodrigues scored his first playoff goal 30 seconds after Tkachuk’s goal. Tkachuk passed the puck to Sam Bennett as he received a hit along the boards near the benches. Rodrigues got ahead of Carolina’s rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin to push the puck through Frederik Andersen and tie the score.
“The message between periods was that, if we scored one, we felt pretty good that we had a good chance to come back,” said Rodrigues, who was moved to a line with Tkachuk and Bennett during the game. “There was no stress. The room wasn’t silent. It was, ‘Get one and see where this takes us.'”
Evan Rodrigues
He brought Florida to its first lead of the game. Just 4:06 after Rodrigues’ goal, center Anton Lundell positioned himself inside of Aho to give Brad Marchand a target with his pass from the boards. Lundell deflected it and the Panthers won 3-2.
“We feel comfortable in these situations. When you’ve been through this before and you’ve gone the distance, you see the different way momentum swings can happen throughout a game and how you can take advantage of that,” Marchand said. “Even when they scored that goal in the third period, it didn’t faze us at all. We kept pushing.”
Brad Marchand
The Hurricanes got the break they needed at 8:30 of the third period. Both Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart failed to clear the puck, and a great forecheck by Andrei Svechnikov sent a bouncing pass to an approaching Seth Jarvis, who fired the puck over Bobrovsky to tie the score 3-3 and re-energize the crowd.
But Barkov, the Florida captain, made his best offensive play of the series. He kept the puck in the offensive zone with Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov on him. He deked around forward Eric Robinson and slid the puck to Verhaeghe, who did what he does best in the playoffs: score the game-winning goal.
It was Verhaeghe’s 12th career goal to win a playoff game, double the next closest player in Panthers history (Tkachuk with six). It was the third series-clinching goal of his career.“He has that pressure gene. Big goals in big moments. He is who he is,” Rodrigues said.
Evan Rodrigues
“Great goal, great goal. Goal that won the Eastern Conference, so it’s something very important,” Tkachuk said.
Matthew Tkachuk
But the Panthers still needed a little more, this time from their penalty kill. Bennett received a slashing penalty with three minutes remaining and Florida leading 4-3. The Panthers’ penalty kill, led by Bobrovsky, managed to keep the puck out of the net with Carolina having pulled Andersen, until Bennett came out of the penalty box to score the game-winning goal.
The Hurricanes’ power play went 0-for-6 on Wednesday.Bobrovsky, who made 20 saves, said it’s a “privilege” to be back in the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight season.“That was the killer. When you look back at this game, those will be a couple of missed moments for sure,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Rod Brind’Amour
“We appreciate it and value it. But again, the most important step is ahead. It’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
Sergei Bobrovsky
The Panthers will await the winner of the Western Conference finals, where the Oilers have a 3-1 series lead over the Stars and will play Game 5 on Thursday in Dallas. Whoever they face, the Panthers will start the series on the road, which might be exactly where they want to be.
Florida has won five consecutive road games, outscoring their opponents 27-7 and scoring at least five goals in each. In series-clinching opportunities this postseason, the Panthers have a 0-2 record at home and 3-0 on the road. They joined the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins as the only teams to not win in multiple home-clinching opportunities en route to a Stanley Cup Final appearance. Since the Stanley Cup playoffs expanded to four full rounds in 1980, there have been four teams that won the Stanley Cup without clinching any series at home. Regardless of where and when the next round begins, it will be as usual for the Panthers.“It was really different two years ago. It was something so new to us,” Tkachuk said. “Whoever we play against, we’ll be very prepared for them. It’s not our first rodeo with this.”
Matthew Tkachuk
