Panthers throttle Hurricanes in Game 2, Carolina in 0-2 series hole to Florida
The Florida Panthers have a big, tough, experienced team that won a Stanley Cup last season, and is after another.
For the second straight game, the Panthers also looked like a team that doesn’t plan to let the Carolina Hurricanes stand in their way.
The Panthers rolled into Lenovo Center, scored three times in the first period, stifled the Canes and came away with a 5-0 victory Thursday, and a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Final.
While goalie Sergei Bobrovsky notched his third shutout of the playoffs, the Panthers got two goals and an assist from Sam Bennett and three assists from Carter Verhaeghe in pounding out the decisive victory.
“That was pretty much a (butt) kicking,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said, summing up the loss succinctly.
The best-of-seven series now moves to Florida for a pair of games, with the Panthers looking to close it out in a four-game sweep and the Hurricanes looking for answers to what might be some unsolvable problems.
“But there’s no quit on this team,” Staal said. “You’ve seen that all season. We’ll focus on this next game and go from there. We’ve got to believe in our group and what we’ve done all year and go steal one.”
Both teams play similar aggressive, in-your-face styles. The Panthers are better at it than the Canes, who again played without injured defenseman Jalen Chatfield, who took the pregame warmup Thursday but could not go.
The Canes had three shots in the opening period and seven through the first 40 minutes as the Panthers had tight gaps defensively, checked hard and well along the boards and allowed few Hurricanes forays near Bobrovsky’s crease.
In the second period, after Canes winger Seth Jarvis decided to pass off the rush rather than shoot, a new chant broke out loudly at Lenovo Center: “Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!”
“What did we have, seven shots at that point? I don’t blame them,” Staal said. “Our M.O. has always been ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ but we weren’t doing that tonight.”
Canes center Sebastian Aho did get a puck past Bobrovsky in the opening minute of the second period after a bad Florida turnover. But the Panthers won a coach’s challenge, claiming the puck left the Florida zone and then knocked back in by Canes defenseman Brent Burns, making Aho offside, and the score was overturned.
It was the kind of play the Hurricanes badly needed, and they continued to try and push the pace in the second with some juggled lines, only to have Bennett score his second goal with 39 seconds left in the period – a final dagger for the Canes.
By the third, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had lifted goalie Frederik Andersen and inserted Pyotr Kochetkov in net. Kochetkov did make a few early saves to earn some cheers.
The Panthers did beat Kochetkov on a third-period power play as Aleksander Barkov scored.
The first period, which proved to be decisive, was total misery for the Canes and a display of total domination by the Panthers, who scored their three goals on five shots.
Of the Hurricanes’ three shots in the period, two by defenseman Dmitry Orlov. They spent a lot of time in their own zone, chasing, watching the Panthers control the puck with a precise forechecking game.
Canes forward Andrei Svechnikov, discombobulated on the ice much of the period, turned the puck over and defenseman Gustav Forsling scored on the Panthers’ first shot of the game.
Svechnikov turned it over a second time and Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk scored off the bounce of a Verhaeghe shot.
Svechnikov took a penalty for roughing after a tussle with Tkachuk and Bennett scored his first of the game on the power play.
The Canes had their first power play late in the first period, only to have Jarvis whiff on a shot from the left circle. So it went for Carolina, which was 5-0 in the playoffs at home before facing the Panthers.
Both teams had players leave the game. The Panthers’ Sam Reinhart left with a lower-body injury and Canes defenseman Sean Walker took an open-ice hit and went to the locker room in the second.
With Chatfield out, Brind’Amour gave rookie defenseman Scott Morrow a second straight start, then did not play him in the first 12 minutes of the game. Morrow had two first-period shifts.
Svechnikov begs off blame for Bob bang
A clip of Svechnikov making contact with Bobrovsky’s head as he skated through the crease during the second period of Game 1 ended up going semi-viral on social media, although neither team brought it up after the game Tuesday or on Wednesday.
Svechnikov, on Thursday morning, said he didn’t even know about it until afterward.
“After the game, actually, my brother and a couple friends asked me, ‘Did you see your hit on Bob?’” Svechnikov said. “I’m like, ‘What you are you guys talking about?’ It looks like I hit him on purpose, but I didn’t mean it at all.”
Injured official OK
Referee Kelly Sutherland, who left Game 1 before the third period after getting hit in the arm by a puck, is the alternate official for Game 2. Eric Furlatt, who worked the first two periods Tuesday alongside Sutherland, and Dan O’Rourke are the referees.
Marchand not commenting
Panthers forward Brad Marchand was asked Thursday what he thought of Canes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere shooting a puck at him before the two dropped the gloves to fight in Game 1.
“I’m not much of a thinker,” Marchand said, grinning. “I don’t have much thought on that.”
Gostisbehere’s comment after the game: “He tried to take a run at me and I shot a puck at him. It is what it is.”
Marchand was given a 10-minute misconduct penalty. Panthers coach Paul Maurice also has declined to comment on the incident.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Panthers throttle Hurricanes in Game 2, Carolina in 0-2 series hole to Florida."
