RALEIGH, N.C. — For the Carolina Hurricanes, it was the end of their season in a Game 5 loss in the Eastern Conference finals. For the Florida Panthers, it was just another Wednesday.
The Panthers advanced to their third straight Stanley Cup Final with a 5-3 victory that saw them rally from a 2-0 first-period deficit, have Carter Verhaeghe score the game-winning goal with 7:39 left in regulation, and kill off a Hurricanes power play with three minutes left and Carolina’s goalie pulled.
It was a thrilling and intense playoff game, one that coach Paul Maurice said had “all the elements that make our sport great.” But the celebration was business as usual for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
They congratulated goalie Sergei Bobrovsky but bypassed any raucous on-ice jubilation. The most celebratory thing the Panthers did was wear their conference champion hats — although Verhaeghe joked that if they were to win a fourth straight conference title next season, they might just keep their helmets on.
“I remember a few years ago it felt like such an accomplishment,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “This year, it’s all business.”
The Panthers also refused to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy for the second straight season after lifting it in 2023. They lost in the Stanley Cup Final that year to the Vegas Golden Knights, before defeating the Edmonton Oilers for their first Cup in 2024.
“I mean, last year it worked. So this year, same thing,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “This is the place you want to be as a hockey player. You want to play for the Stanley Cup, and once again, we’re here third year in a row. That’s a great achievement, but we all know we’re here to win the bigger things.”
The Panthers’ business-like mindset helped them overcome a disastrous start to the game that saw Carolina take a 2-0 lead on a pair of Sebastian Aho goals. Carolina was 6-0 in the postseason when scoring first, having done so in Game 4 to push the series back to Raleigh.
“They’re all over us and we’re serving up pizzas. We don’t look like we should have made the playoffs. And then the next thing you know, we look pretty good,” Maurice said.
Carolina couldn’t capitalize on an early second-period power play to extend the lead and then watched center Jesperi Kotkaniemi take an ill-advised offensive zone holding penalty behind the play. Tkachuk tipped home an Aaron Ekblad shot just 16 seconds into the ensuing power play to cut the lead in half. It was the Panthers’ first power-play goal in 11 opportunities over the past three games.
As usual with the Panthers, one goal led to multiple goals. Evan Rodrigues scored his first of the playoffs 30 seconds after Tkachuk’s tally. Tkachuk fed the puck to Sam Bennett while taking a hit along the boards near the benches. Rodrigues got inside Carolina rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin to poke the puck through Frederik Andersen to tie the game.
“The message in between periods was just that if we got one, we felt pretty good that we had a good chance of coming back,” said Rodrigues, who was moved back to a line with Tkachuk and Bennett during the game. “There was no stress. The room wasn’t quiet. It was, ‘Get one and see where this takes us.'”
It took Florida to its first lead of the game. Just 4:06 after Rodrigues’ goal, center Anton Lundell got inside position on Aho to give Brad Marchand a target with his pass from the wing. Lundell tipped it home, and the Panthers were up 3-2.
“We’re comfortable in these situations. When you’ve been through it before and you’ve gone all the way, you see the different way that momentum swings can happen throughout a game and how you can take advantage of that,” Marchand said. “Even when they got that goal in the third, it didn’t phase us at all. We just kept pushing.”
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 disc to an on-rushing Seth Jarvis, who flipped the puck past Bobrovsky to tie the game 3-3 and reignite the crowd.
But the Florida captain made his best offensive play of the series. Barkov held the puck in the attacking zone with Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov all over 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 game-winning goal in the playoffs, twice as many as the next-closest player in Panthers history (Tkachuk with six). It was the third series-clinching goal of his career.
“He’s got that clutch gene. Big goals at big times. It’s who he is,” Rodrigues said.
“Great goal, huge goal. Eastern Conference winning goal, so pretty big deal there,” said Tkachuk.
But the Panthers still needed a little bit more heroism, this time from their penalty kill. Bennett took a slashing penalty with three minutes left and Florida leading 4-3. The Panthers PK, led by Bobrovsky, managed to keep the puck out of the net with Carolina having pulled Andersen, until Bennett emerged from the penalty box to score the clinching goal.
The Hurricanes’ power play went 0-for-6 in the game.
“That was the killer. When you look back on this game, that’ll be a couple of lost moments for sure,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
Bobrovsky, who made 20 saves, said it’s a “privilege” to be back in the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight season.
“We appreciate that and we value that. But again, the most important step is ahead of us. It’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
The Panthers will await the winner of the Western Conference, where the Edmonton Oilers have a 3-1 series lead on the Dallas Stars. Whoever they face, the series will begin on the road — which might be exactly where Florida wants to be.
The Panthers have won five straight games on the road, outscoring opponents 27-7 and scoring at least five goals in each game.
In series-clinching opportunities in this postseason, the Panthers are now 0-2 at home and 3-0 on the road. The Panthers join the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins as the only teams to go winless 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 to win the Stanley Cup without clinching any series on their home ice.
Wherever and whenever they start the next round, it’ll be business as usual for the Panthers.
“It was really different two years ago. It was so new to us,” Tkachuk said. “Whoever we play, we’ll be very prepared for them. It’s not our first rodeo with this.”
