Barkov, Boqvist each has 3 points for defending-champion Florida, which is 1 win from Cup Final
Hurricanes at Panthers | Recap | ECF, Game 3
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers scored five goals in the first 10:37 of the third period, pulling away to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.
The defending Stanley Cup champions lead the best-of-7 series 3-0. They can sweep the series and earn a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final with a win in Game 4 here on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“You don’t think about that,” Panthers forward Brad Marchand said. “We are prepared to go seven here. The biggest thing with this group is that we’re really good at focusing on what we need to do, stay in the moment, and not look ahead. You can’t start looking ahead. That’s a very dangerous game to play.”
Aleksander Barkov had two goals and an assist, Jesper Boqvist had a goal and two assists, and Niko Mikkola scored twice for the Panthers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division. Evan Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk each had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.
“We have a deep lineup, a great group of guys,” said Bobrovsky, who has allowed four goals in three games in the series. “Everyone works for each other, and we keep building our game. It is fun to be a part of it.”
CAR@FLA, Gm3: Panthers score 4 goals in just over 4 minutes against the Hurricanes in a 6-2 win
Logan Stankoven had a goal and an assist, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 22 saves in his first start of the series for the Hurricanes, who are the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina has lost 15 straight games in the Eastern Conference Final, having been swept in its past three appearances. Seven of those losses have come at the hands of Florida, which defeated the Hurricanes in the 2023 conference final.
“We were there, we were playing better, and then we just turn pucks over — and that’s not what we do, no one does that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You can’t do that, can’t do it anytime. Do that in a preseason game, and it will cost you. That team? You turn it over for an odd-man rush and forget it. We know that. That was really demoralizing. We know the margin is tight.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead at 12:07 of the first period when Mikkola sent a backhanded pass across the slot and it deflected in off the skate of Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov.
CAR@FLA, Gm3: Mikkola sneaks it in and puts the Panthers on the board
Later in the period, Florida lost forward Eetu Luostarinen at 16:59 after he was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Jackson Blake. The Panthers killed off that extended power play, which extended into the second period.
“That is a real inflection point in the game because of having those two guys out,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said, referring to being without top penalty killers Luostarinen and forward Sam Reinhart, who did not play because of a lower-body injury.
“You get Boqvist to come in, and Rodrigues came in, [Tomas] Nosek got more minutes, and that’s kind of where you get to in the playoffs. Somebody else has to block the shot. … When you are on the bench and they do it, you really get a bounce from it.”
Following a Gustav Forsling penalty for delay of game, however, Carolina beat Florida’s penalty kill when Stankoven tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 14:51 of the second by scoring on the rebound of Brent Burns’ point shot.
“We can play a lot better than that third period,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said. “Up to that point, there wasn’t much going on either way. We both had a few looks, not much. That gave us a chance to win the hockey game, but the third, it went off the rails. Bad plays, they made us pay, and it’s game over.”
Boqvist, who entered the lineup Saturday in place of Reinhart, gave Florida a 2-1 lead at 1:29 of the third on a breakaway. After a Carolina turnover in the neutral zone, he took a pass from Rodrigues, skated into the slot and put a one-armed, backhanded shot between the skates of Kochetkov.
Boqvist has two goals in 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games this season after not scoring in his final 31 regular-season games.
“Obviously a huge win for us,” he said. “Glad I could help out a little bit.”
CAR@FLA, Gm3: Boqvist’s backhand puts the Panthers up in the 3rd
Mikkola scored his second of the game for a 3-1 lead at 6:26. He received a pass from Sam Bennett on the rush and scored from the left circle with a wrist shot to the top right corner.
Barkov then pushed it to 4-1 just 29 seconds later. Tkachuk took control of the puck off an Orlov turnover in Carolina’s defensive zone and fed Barkov, who skated into the slot and beat Kochetkov to the blocker side.
Barkov’s second of the game made it 5-1 at 9:31. He threw the puck toward the net from the left circle and it deflected off the stick of Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere.
“We go into the game knowing exactly what we need to do,” said Barkov, the Florida captain. “We are playing, obviously, a really good team and they are going to have their moments as well. We just need to stay focused. They had a really good push in the second period and ‘Bob’ helped us a lot. … In the third period, we took over. The confidence level is high. Everyone is having fun right now.”
CAR@FLA, Gm3: Barkov’s 2nd goal of the game puts the Panthers up by 4 in the 3rd
Marchand extended it to 6-1 at 10:37 when he scored off a cross-ice pass from Anton Lundell on a 2-on-1.
Seth Jarvis cut it to 6-2 on the power play at 11:01, scoring on a backhand from the low slot off a feed from Stankoven.
“I thought going into the third, the game was right there for us after two periods,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “A quick turnover and they made us pay, then they got rolling. That’s a tough team to stop when they get their juices flowing. We were playing turnover city there.”
NOTES: Mikkola left the game with an undisclosed injury at 8:02 of the third after he slid awkwardly into the end boards while defending Stankoven on the rush. “We think he’s going to be OK,” Maurice said. … Florida is the third team in the past 30 years to score five or more goals in four consecutive postseason games. The Colorado Avalanche did it in five straight games in 2024 and four consecutive games in 2021, and the Detroit Red Wings did it in four games in a row in 1995. … Marchand became the fourth active player to score 10 playoff goals against multiple franchises (13 against the Toronto Maple Leafs). The others are Evgeni Malkin (three), Sidney Crosby (three) and Alex Ovechkin (two). Marchand also became the fourth active player with at least 60 career postseason goals, joining Ovechkin (77), Crosby (71) and Malkin (67). … Kochetkov started in place of Frederik Andersen, who allowed nine goals on 36 shots for a 5.54 goals-against average and .750 save percentage in Games 1 and 2. Florida won 5-2 and 5-0. Kochetkov replaced Andersen for the third period of Game 2 on Thursday and made four saves on five shots.
FLA vs. CAR | EDM vs. DAL
FLA vs. TOR | CAR vs. WSH | DAL vs. WPG | EDM vs. VGK
OTT vs. TOR | FLA vs. TBL | MTL vs. WSH | NJD vs. CAR
STL vs. WPG | COL vs. DAL | MIN vs. VGK | EDM vs. LAK
