The Florida Panthers are heading to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year. Paul Maurice’s team defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-3, on Wednesday to capture the 2024-25 Eastern Conference championship. Florida won the series, four games to one.
The Panthers now await the winner of the Western Conference Final. The Edmonton Oilers currently lead the Dallas Stars, three games to one. Edmonton has done a stellar job over the last three games at shutting down Mikko Rantanen and company.
Last year, of course, the Panthers defeated the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final, four games to three. Cup Final rematches in consecutive years have been relatively rare since the NHL expanded from six teams to 12 in 1967-68. The more teams, the fewer rematches. If Florida plays Edmonton again, it will mark just the second Cup Final rematch in 40 years. The last time it happened, the Detroit Red Wings played the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2008 and 2009 Finals. The Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-2022) are the only two NHL teams to reach the Cup Final in three straight season since 1985.
Comeback victory for the Panthers
The Panthers trailed 2-0 at the first intermission. Sebastian Aho (sixth and seventh goals of the playoffs) notched a pair of tallies to stake Florida to the lead. Both goals stemmed from Panthers turnovers.
Florida turned the tables in the second period with three unanswered goals by Matthew Tkachuk (PPG, 5th), Evan Rodrigues (1st), and Anton Lundell (5th).Florida generated only seven shots on net in the frame but made the most of their chances.
The third period saw Seth Jarvis (6th) knot the score at 3-3 before Carter Verhaeghe (6th) took a feed from Aleksander Barkov and beat Frederik Andersen for what proved to be the series-winning goal at 12:21. Sam Reinhart drew the secondary assist. Later, Barkov and Reinhart assisted on an empty net goal by Sam Bennett (10th) to close out the scoring.
Winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 20 of 23 shots. Andersen stopped 17 of 21 shots on goal.
Three deciding factors
- Special teams. The Panthers went 1-for-4 on the power play. They were 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.
- Resilience. Florida never panicked even when trailing by two goals. It took just 30 second between the Tkachuk and Rodrigues goals to tie the game at 2-2. Carolina never led again.
- Offensive arsenal. Five different Panthers players scored one goal apiece in Game Five. Carolina has a lot of talent in its own right, but the diverse weapons are a big reason why Florida three-peated as Eastern Conference champions.
