The Florida Panthers are back in the Stanley Cup Final.
Florida came back from a two-goal deficit to shock the Carolina Hurricanes and claim their third straight Eastern Conference crown with a 5-3 victory in Game 5 of the conference final on Wednesday night.
Lenovo Center was rocking early, especially after Carolina scored the game’s first goal.
An extremely uncharacteristic giveaway by Gus Forsling at center ice sprung Sebastian Aho on a breakaway, and he beat Sergei Bobrovsky under the glove to give the home team an early 1-0 lead.
Florida was given a pair of first period power plays but failed to register a shot on either, bringing their drought with the man advantage to 10 straight.
Another giveaway by a Panthers defenseman led to the second goal of the period by Carolina.
This time it was Niko Mikkola fumbling the puck in the neutral zone, handing it to Seth Jarvis who quickly fed Aho streaking into the zone.
His long shot was partially stopped by Bobrovsky, but not enough to keep it from crossing the goal line.
Florida finally got on the scoreboard during the second period thanks to the smooth hands of Matthew Tkachuk.
His deflection of an Aaron Ekblad shot while Florida was on their third power play of the game, cutting Carolina’s lead in half 7:23 into the middle frame.
Just 30 seconds later, Evan Rodrigues finished off a nice passing play from Sam Bennett and Tkachuk to tie the game at two.
The Cats weren’t done there.
Four minutes and six seconds after they tied the game, Brad Marchand made a perfect pass out of the corner to Anton Lundell in front of the net, and his deflection went over Andersen’s glove to give the Panthers their first lead of the game.
Seth Jarvis jumped on a loose puck after a clearing attempt went off a skate and back into the slot, tying the game at three with 11:30 to go.
An incredible play by Sasha Barkov behind Carolina’s net, shaking off Dmitry Orlov and taking the puck to the front of the net, led to a perfect pass to Carter Verhaeghe at the far post.
His shot beat a sprawling Andersen to put the Panthers back in front with 7:39 on the clock.
Bennett added an empty-net goal to seal the deal for Florida.
On to the Stanley Cup Final.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Rodrigues became the 19th different Panthers player to score a goal during this postseason.
Tkachuk has multi-point games in three of his past four outings. He’s up to six points this series and 16 during the playoffs.
Ekblad is averaging a point per game during this series.
The assist by Jones on Tkachuk’s goal was his first point of the series.
Bennett has seven points in the five games against Carolina.
Verhaeghe’s goal was his first point in three games, but he still logged two goals and six point in the series.
Barkov also picked up six points in the series, including three goals.
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Photo recap: May 28, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers forward Anton Lundell (15) celebrates scoring with forward Jonah Gadjovich (12) and forward Brad Marchand (63) and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (7) during the second period against the Carolina Hurricanes in game five of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)
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