Your Florida Panthers have once again reached the Stanley Cup Final. For the second time in three seasons, the Cats eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes while on the doorstep of hockey's ultimate stage. Throughout this series, it seemed and appeared as though the Canes struggled mightily to compete with their former Southeast Division rivals.
None of the games in this series had a one-goal difference. That is, unless you count the clinching Game 5, where the Panthers won by two goals, by way of a Sam Bennett empty-net tally. Florida dominated from start to finish, excluding a lackluster effort in Game 4. Florida began this series in Raleigh, where the visiting Panthers won the first two games by a combined score of 10-2.
For Games 3 and 4, the series shifted to Sunrise, where the Panthers continued their domination. In Game 3, the score was tied at one after the first 40 minutes. Then, the hosting Cats scored five goals in nine minutes to run away with a 6-2 victory and a 3-0 series lead. As said earlier, the team from the Sunshine State stumbled when going for the sweep.
Florida didn't come out of the locker room with the energy and intensity needed to close out a playoff series. They didn't have the legs much and failed to rack up 10 shots on net until after the halfway point of the contest. It felt as if they were chasing the whole game right from the opening puck drop. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky kept the game from getting out of hand, but Florida didn't bring the juice.
It was a one-goal game before the Hurricanes got two empty-netters to win 3-0, and avoid a second sweep at the hands of Florida. So, the teams had to travel back to Raleigh for Game 5. That contest was far from the best effort the Panthers displayed in the postseason. Another sloppy and listless start, punctuated by horrendous turnovers, propelled Carolina to take an early 2-0 lead after the first period.
Paul Maurice must've laid into the team with a fiery speech during the first intermission. Florida came out for the second period like gangbusters. It took some time, but the team woke up with two goals in 30 seconds to knot the score. Matthew Tkachuk scored on the power-play at the 07:23 mark, and then Evan Rodrigues lit the lamp at the 07:53 mark.
4:06 later, Anton Lundell scored his only goal of the series to give Florida a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission. 8:30 into the third period, Carolina's Seth Jarvis tied the game at three, setting the game up for a dramatic ending. Fortunately for Florida fans, the man known as 'Swaggy' added to his lengthy list of clutch playoff moments.
Carter Verhaeghe finished a nasty backhanded feed from Aleksander Barkov at the 12:21 mark, to give the Cats a 4-3 lead in the final minutes. This time, the team in white was able to hold onto the slim lead, and Sam Bennett put the game and series away with an empty-net goal right after coming out of the penalty box for serving a tripping call.
It was a thrilling finish to a series that wasn't very competitive. With the win, Florida advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year and will have a rematch with the Edmonton Oilers. Before everyone skips ahead to the Final, though, let's take a look at three ways in which Florida was able to move on.
The Florida Panthers are one of the best teams in the NHL as far as limiting the number of great scoring chances their opponents have. Most of those grade-A scoring chances usually come on odd-man rushes. However, when the opposition is forced to spend and create time in the zone, they don't get many looks close to the net.
That is because the Cats excel in keeping shots from the outside and on sharp angles. That was exactly what they did against the Hurricanes. Sergei Bobrovsky had to make his fair share of difficult saves throughout the series, but he saw a lot of pucks and made a plethora of easy saves as well. Many of the shots that Carolina put on net were from the blue line or sharp angles.
Take a look at Carolina's shot chart in the deciding Game 5. As you can see, the hosting Canes had 21 of their 54 shot attempts outside the 'home plate' area of the offensive zone. For a refresher, the 'home plate' area of the offensive zone is the part inside the slot, where the two face-off dots are across each other, and then the goaltender's crease. These are where the prime scoring chances occur.
Now, two of Carolina's three goals did occur in the prime scoring areas. However, if you look closely, Florida blocked a ton of shots in those parts as well. The Panthers recorded 12 blocked shots in Game 5. 11 of those came from those parts of the zone. Even if Florida is not blocking shots, their defense has been so suffocating that it's forced the opponent to miss the net a bunch as well.
The Hurricanes racked up 22 missed shots. 11 of those came from inside the slot. That is the result of Florida using its sticks and bodies to alter the trajectory of the shots that the opposition took. It worked wonderfully and shows that if Florida plays and sticks to their game, they can slow anybody down.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a team that has made deep playoff runs because of their defensive play, which has been the hallmark of Rod Brind'Amour's coached teams. However, the lineup for the Canes is thin to generate offense. Essentially, the Hurricanes have three third lines. So much of the pressure to create offense falls on the shoulders of Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
If you look at the series stats, you will see that the Panthers were able to do that effectively. In the playoff duel, Aho led his squad in goals with four. However, two of those came in Game 5, which gave the Canes a 2-0 lead that would eventually evaporate. Those tallies were the result of some bad passes as well. Before that, he was mostly invisible.
Game 1 saw him score his first goal late in the opening period. However, Florida eventually ran away with that one. In Game 2, the Canes were shut out. Game 3 saw Aho fail to find the back of the net, and in Game 4, he lit the lamp... on an empty-net goal. The native of Finland did rack up the most shots of any Carolina player with 19, but it's safe to say he didn't have the impact needed to give his squad more of a chance.
On the other hand, Andrei Svechnikov was a ghost. Through the five-game set, the winger from Russia didn't score a single goal. He was held to just three assists and racked up five shots on net for the entirety of the series. He was nowhere to be found and was frustrated. If anything, the seventh-year pro was the most ineffective player on the team, as he led Carolina in penalty minutes(20). No one else came close to matching that.
Throughout these 2025 playoffs, the Panthers have won games by taking over the action. How many times has Florida scored multiple goals in a period that put the game away? It's happened in every round, and that was the case against Carolina in the Eastern Conference Final. Each of the four victories in this series saw Florida go on single-period scoring barrages.
In Game 1, the team scored two goals in the first and third periods to win 5-2. Game 2 saw the Cats score three goals before the end of the first period, which put an end to that battle. In Game 3, the Panthers scored five goals in nine minutes during the third period. That turned a 1-1 tie into a 6-1 lead. In the clinching Game 5, Florida scored three goals in the middle frame to take the lead.
Some of these instances won games for the Panthers while others put them in position to grab the win and gave the team momentum. Taking over games has been one of the consistent themes of this entire playoff run, and it was seen here once again.