Florida Panthers Did Not Panic in Face of the Hurricanes

The way Wednesday night’s game started, it did not look like the Florida Panthers would be punching their ticket to a third straight Stanley Cup Final just yet.

No, it sort of looked like the Carolina Hurricanes had wedged their way back into the Eastern Conference final and were going to force another game in Sunrise come Friday night.

Only that did not come to pass.

Even though the Hurricanes had a multi-goal lead going into the second, the Panthers rallied and held off Carolina with a 5-3 win.

That third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final is now official.

The Panthers simply did not panic.

“We’re down 2, there’s 40 minutes of hockey,’’ Paul Maurice said. “We can score some goals. We’re OK in this game, as long as we show some composure with what we do. We’re going to get a chance.

“We can’t wait until the third, but if we could not get it to 3-0 – that was our sole focus, don’t let it get to three. Then, let’s chip away.”

Two egregious first-period turnovers gave Carolina a 2-0 lead after the opening period.

That turned out to be an opportunity for the TNT broadcast crew to remind viewers that the Hurricanes were 32-0-0 in games in which they held a two-goal lead this season.

By the time the third period started, the reminder was that Florida was 32-4-1 when leading after two — and are now 10-0 in the playoffs when going into the third with a lead.

Sergei Bobrovsky could not have been happy over the two goals relinquished to Sebastian Aho in the first period.

Like his team, Bobrovsky refused to get rattled and pretty much stonewalled Carolina the rest of the way.

If there is any lesson that Maurice taught his team in his three seasons is that there is rarely a reason to panic, especially with a lot of time on the clock.

The oft-used expression that “your best players must be your best players” rang true on Wednesday.

Sasha Barkov didn’t get a point on the first Florida goal by Matthew Tkachuk, but he won the faceoff to get that play going.

That opened the gates.

Evan Rodrigues scored 30 seconds later to make it 2-2 off a tap-in following a great give-and-go with Sam Bennett.

A few minutes later and it was Anton Lundell converting another neat feed — this one from Brad Marchand — after winning a faceoff and heading to the goalmouth.

Three goals on three shots in a span of 4:36.

The pièce de résistance came in the third after Seth Jarvis got a favorable bounce and chipped the puck past Bobrovsky for the game-tying goal.

No panic.

No worries, either.

It took only 3:51 for Barkov to work magic we have seen so often.

He seemed to have Dmitry Orlov on his back forever before springing free and sending a pass across the goalmouth where Carter Verhaeghe was able to thread the needle and put the puck past Frederik Andersen from a tough angle.

Not hard to believe? It was Verhaeghe’s third career series clinching goal.

The real heroics were yet to come.

Bobrovsky and the Panthers’ relentless checkers held off the hard-charging Hurricanes in the closing minutes when Sam Bennett was in the box for slashing Jordan Staal and Andersen went to the bench.

Only one Carolina shot reached the goal during the 6-on-4 advantage.

The Hurricanes were pressing so hard that they forgot that Bennett would emerge from the penalty box in time to retrieve a puck cleared down ice by Barkov.

Bennett scored into the empty net, putting the Hurricanes away.

After the game, Bobrovsky spoke about holding Carolina off on that final push on the power play.

“We have done it so many times. We had the confidence that we’re going to do it this time as well,” Bobrovsky said. “The guys compete and work hard. There was also in the second period lots of power plays for them. The guys were strong and kept them on the outside.

“So, it’s a solid performance by us. Carolina played great, too.”

2025 STANLEY CUP FINAL

GAME 1

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ DALLAS STARS/EDMONTON OILERS

Edmonton Leads Dallas 3-1 in Best-of-7 Series

• When: Wednesday, June 4 or Saturday, June 7
• Where: AmericanAirlines Center, Dallas/Rogers Place, Edmonton
• National TV: TNT/truTV 
• National Streaming: Max
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys), SiriusXM
• Radio Streaming: SiriusXM, NHL App
• Series Schedule: TBA

IF DALLAS

• Regular Season — Panthers Won 2-0 (Tampere, Finland): Florida 6, Dallas 3; Florida 4, Dallas 2 
• How They Got Here: Dallas d. Colorado (7), Winnipeg (6); Florida d. Tampa Bay (5), Toronto (7), Carolina (5)
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 28-21-2, 3 ties
• Postseason History: First meeting

IF EDMONTON

• Regular Season (Panthers won 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 4, Oilers 3 (Feb. 27). At Edmonton:  Panthers 6, Oilers 5 (Dec. 16).
• How They Got Here: Edmonton d. Los Angeles (6), Vegas (5); Florida d. Tampa Bay (5), Toronto (7), Carolina (5)
• Postseason History: Florida Won 2024 Stanley Cup Final 4-3
• All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-18-0, 3 ties