The Florida Panthers are one win away from a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
Florida played a strong defensive game, limiting the Carolina Hurricanes offensive opportunities and skating to a stingy 6-2 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Carolina got off to a better start than they had in either of the previous games, outshooting Florida 4-2 in the opening minutes.
It didn’t stop the Panthers from scoring the first goal of the game for the third time this series.
Niko Mikkola collected the puck at the side of Carolina’s net and sent a pass toward Sasha Barkov on the doorstep.
The puck went off the skate of Dmitry Orlov and past Pytor Kochetkov to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the 12:07 mark.
After Carolina logged four shots in the game’s first 6:30, Florida held them without a shot on goal for 10:01 of game time.
With just over three minutes left in the period, Eetu Luostarinen was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding after he hit Jackson Blake into the boards.
Florida was able to kill off 4:52 of the penalty before Jerperi Kotkaniemi was called for cross checking Seth Jones to wipe out the final seconds of the man advantage.
During the extended power play, the Cats and Canes each logged the same amount of shots on goal: two.
Arguably the save of the game came by Sergei Bobrovsky about midway through the second period.
With Carolina coming on an odd-man rush, Bobrovsky slid to his right and got his blocker on a one-timer by Logan Stankoven to keep the Hurricanes off the scoreboard a little bit longer.
Speaking of Stankoven, he jumped on a rebound with Carolina on the power play late in the period and beat Bobrovsky to tie the game at one.
Early in the third period, just after a Florida power play expired, Jesper Boqvist sent the fans inside Amerant Bank Arena into a frenzy.
He carried the puck over the blue line, turned Dmitry Orlov inside out with an outside-inside move and slid the puck under Kochetkov to put the Panthers back in front 2-1 just 89 seconds into the final frame.
The frenzy got even louder about six minutes later when Mikkola came down the left side of the ice and wired a wrist shot over Kochetkov’s glove to double Florida’s lead.
Just 30 seconds later, Sasha Barkov added a fourth goal after making a great move to his backhand, putting the Panthers up by three in what felt like the blink of an eye.
He wasn’t done there.
Barkov scored again, this time on a shot that went off Shayne Gostisbehere’s stick, just 2:36 later to push Florida’s lead to 5-1.
Brad Marchand got in on the fun a mere 66 seconds later, finishing off a great feed from Anton Lundell, giving the Panthers a five-goal lead.
Seth Jarvis added a power play goal for Carolina with 8:59 to go, but at that point it was way too little, too late.
On to Game 4.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Mikkola had one point through the first two rounds of the playoffs, but he’s got at least one point in each of the three games against Carolina.
He left the game during the third period after taking an awkward tumble into the boards behind Florida’s net.
Evan Rodrigues is riding a four-game point streak, logging seven assists during the run.
Barkov also has points in each of his past four games, with three goals and four assists.
Boqvist has two goals and two assists over his past three games.
Aaron Ekblad has points in three straight games, picking up an assist on Boqvist’s goal.
Matthew Tkachuk logged a pair of assists, giving him five points over a three-game point streak.
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Photo caption: May 24, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Carolina Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven (22) takes a shot on goal as Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) makes a save during the second period in game three of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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