After skating to a 5-2 victory in Raleigh in Game One of the Eastern Conference Final, the Florida Panthers can take a commanding series lead back to Sunrise if they beat the Carolina Hurricanes again in Game Two on Thursday night. The odds of any team beating the defending Stanley Cup champions (and back-to-back Eastern Conference champs) in four of six games, with three at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise would be rather slim.
However, Rod Brind’Amour’s team, the NHL’s best puck-possession club, is a resilient squad. Additionally, they’re relentless. Game One was more hotly contested than the final score indicated, but Sergei Bobrovsky’s 31-save performance as the was the big difference-maker before Florida pulled away in the opener.
Game Two Projected lineup: Florida
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt — Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
[Vitek Vanecek]
Game Two Projected Lineup: Carolina
Jalen Chatfield remains questionable for Game Two. If he does not dress for the Hurricanes, Scott Morrow or Alexander Nikishin could play instead. Morrow made his NHL playoff debut in Game One.Up front. Additionally, Jesperi Kotkaniemi skated as an extra at Thursday’s morning skate. He appears to be a likely healthy scratch. If so, the returning Mark Jankowski could step in for the Finn.
Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Taylor Hall – Jack Roslovic – Logan Stankoven
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – William Carrier
Eric Robinson – Mark Jankowski – Jackson Blake
Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov – Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere – Scott Morrow
Frederick Andersen
[Pyotr Kochetkov]
Broadcast Info
Game two will be televised on TNT, TRUTV, and Max. Game time is 8:00 p.m. EDT.
