The defending Stanley Cup champions flipped the script on the top defensive team in these Stanley Cup Playoffs, putting on an absolute clinic of excellence Thursday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh.
As a result, the Florida Panthers skated to a dominating 5-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final. That gives them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series after winning twice on the road.
Sergei Bobrovsky faced only 17 shots — seven in the first two periods — and stopped them all for his third shutout this postseason. Florida beat Carolina at its own game defensively, completely neutralizing the Hurricanes, who were never able to sustain their typically heavy forecheck.
At the other end of the ice, the Panthers scored on their first goal of the game, and three of their five shots in the first period against Frederik Andersen. They added a fourth goal against Andersen before the second period ended, and he was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov to begin the third period. Andersen, who had a 1.36 goals-against average in the first two rounds of the playoffs, has allowed nine goals on 36 shots in the first two games of this series.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to assert themselves Thursday, coming off a solid 5-2 win in the series opener two days prior. After ferocious work by Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett led to a Carolina turnover, Gustav Forsling’s shot deflected off a Hurricanes defender and past Andersen to make it 1-0 just 1:17 in to the game.
Tkachuk scored his first goal in 11 games to double Florida’s lead at 11:41. Carter Verhaeghe came out from behind the goal line and slid a pass to Tkachuk at the far post for the tap-in. Sam Bennett then scored his first of the night at 15:50, deflecting Verhaeghe’s shot past Andersen for a 3-0 Florida lead.
The Hurricanes thought they finally had broken through in the first minute of the second period, but a wise timeout and subsequent smart challenge by Panthers coach Paul Maurice paid off for the Panthers.
Sebastian Aho beat Bobrovsky one-on-one 51 seconds into the period after it appeared Tkachuk knocked the puck back into his own zone after it crossed the blue line. But Maurice called a timeout to allow his people extra time to study the video and then challenged the play for offsides. The challenge was upheld on review when it was ruled Carolina’s Brent Burns knocked the puck off Tkachuk’s stick and back into the Florida zone, thus creating the offsides.
The Panthers went on to out-shoot their hosts 11-4 in the period, and scored the only goal in the final minute. Bennett went hard to the net to bury Verhaeghe’s third assist of the game at 19:21.
Bobrovsky made 10 saves in the final period to finish off the shutout and Aleksander Barkov scored another power-play goal, on a deflection in front of Kochetkov, at 13:49 for Florida’s fifth and final goal.
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3 takeaways after Panthers dominate Hurricanes 4-0 in Game 2 of Eastern Conference Final
1.Carolina concern
The Hurricanes entered this series 8-2, after they defeated the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals each in five games. They were a perfect 5-0 on home ice.
In the conference final, they’ve not only lost the first two games on home ice, but been outscored 10-2. The Hurricanes haven’t held the lead for a single second, and trailed for 110:13 out of the 120 minutes played. They’ve been thoroughly outplayed in every facet you wish to look at, and physically dominated by the punishing Panthers, who were credited with another 48 hits Thursday.
Both Seth Jarvis and Sean Walker missed shifts after appearing to get hurt in the game, though each was able to return and finish the contest.
Carolina has lost each of its past 14 games played in the conference final, dating to 2009. They were swept in the East Final by the Panthers in 2023, so have lost six straight postseason games to them.
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2. Sam Reinhart injury concern for Panthers
Not all the news was positive for the Panthers. High-scoring forward Sam Reinhart exited the game late in the first period after a borderline hit by Aho. Reinhart, who favored his right leg after the collision, didn’t return with what was termed a lower-body injury. His status moving forward in the series is unknown.
If he misses any time, it’d be a major blow for Florida. Reinhart scored 39 goals this season, the fourth straight campaign he netted at least 30. He had an NHL career-high 57 goals in 2023-24. So far in these playoffs, Reinhart has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in 14 games.
Outside of his elite goal-scoring ability, the 29-year-old is one of the League’s best two-way forwards. He and linemate Barkov each is a finalist for the Selke Trophy, given to the top defensive forward in the League.
Fourth-line wings A.J. Greer and Tomas Nosek took turns in Reinhart’s spot next to Barkov and Evan Rodrigues the remainder of Game 2. Verhaeghe also double-shifted on occasion.
3. Gustav Forsling joins Panthers party
Forsling became the 18th different goal scorer for the Panthers this postseason with his first-period tally. That’s a testament to Florida’s incredible depth, with every line posing a threat to score. Of the 22 skaters who’ve dressed in at least one game in these playoffs for the Panthers, only Rodrigues, Nosek, Mackie Samoskevich, and Nico Sturm have yet to score a goal.
Florida’s received 13 goals from defensemen in 14 games this postseason. Seth Jones, Aaron Ekblad and Nate Schmidt each have three. All seven defensemen that’ve dressed in the playoffs scored at least one goal.
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