May 24th, 2025, 11:15pm
One team wins by advancing to the third Stanley Cup final. The other is about to run out again in the conference finals. That sounds dramatic, but that’s the reality facing the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes following Saturday’s Panthers 6-2 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers opened the series by scoring five goals in each of their first two games and revealing the Hurricane in a way that was not played by another team this postseason. It seemed like the cane might have found a solution on Saturday as the Panthers entered the third period tied 1-1 before they exploded five consecutive goals to close Game 3 in highlights.
How did both teams perform? Who is worth watching in Game 4? And given that there is a play sweep, what does Monday mean for both teams, knowing that one of them can see their season end? Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton answer these questions while reviewing what was a biased Eastern Conference Finals.
The Panthers endured the prediction of an early push from Carolina and quickly settled in their own game. They failed to take advantage of the first period of power play chances, but made up for it by opening a goal midway through the first round with a credited goal to Nico Miccola (actually out of Carolina’s Dmitry Orloff). It was a deflationary marker for Carolina goalkeeper Peter Kochetkov to give in shortly after a solid hurricane penalty kill, which seemed to reduce Carolina’s confidence.
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However, it could have changed the momentum of Carolina. Before the first period ended, the Panthers moved forward with Eetu Luostarinen. This led Luostarinen to gain a five-minute penalty and game cheating, placing the Panthers on Luostarinen’s two top forwards and an injured Samline Hart. However, Florida’s long-term human advantages did not hurt its momentum. The Panthers killed it and added Carolina’s shots during the shorthand.
The score came in third and tied 1-1, but Florida regained the lead in a shocking way, with Jesper Boqvist taking off (to put it gently). Boqvist was in the lineup to replace Reinhart, and Florida was a kind of contribution that could only be seen from skaters of that depth.
From there it’s all the Panthers, with goals from Miccola, Alexander Barkov (using Orloff’s sales), Evan Rodriguez and Brad Marchand giving Florida a 6-1 lead midway through the third and Carolinas towards Game 4, where the ropes were eliminated. (He left in the third term after hitting the endboard on Saturday.) But the cat can’t be frustrated when he thinks of victory. – Kristen Silton
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Jesper Boqvist brings the Panthers back first
Jesper Boqvist will walk through the goaltender’s feet to recover from the Panthers’ lead vs. hurricane.
Unofficial Canadian Poet Award winner Avril Lavigne once raised one of the more philosophical questions of her generation. Why do you have to make things so complicated?
Everything the Hurricanes did throughout the first two periods of Game 3 produced the belief that they could stick with the Panthers. They then fall apart in the third season. Also.
There are many reasons why losing Game 3 is so bad for the Hurricane. The most obvious and common thing is that there may be nothing else they can do at this stage. It has been confirmed that the Panthers will take a 3-0 series lead and be pushed to Game 7 in the playoff series. That was the fact of last year’s Stanley Cup final against the Edmonton Oilers.
But through the three games in this series? The Hurricane switched goaltenders, adjusted the lineup, and called for other changes within the structure. – Ryan S. Clark
Game 3 3 stars
Miccola had quite a series. The defensive man defeated the play, took command from the rush, creating a chance for quality scores. He had two goals in his first career multi-goal playoff game in Game 3 and in his fourth multi-goal playoff game in the history of the Panthers franchise.
It was two goals, the helper of the cat captain. This was Barkov’s 20th career multipoint playoff game, the most in Panthers’ franchise history.
3. Panthers’ third season
The Panthers were unloaded in the final frame and scored five goals to escape the final score 6-2 in Game 3. Five tacks are the most common at any time in the playoff game in franchise history. The Hurricane has lost 15 straight conference final games since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.
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The Panthers pour with two more rapid goals
The Panthers will score two more goals for more than a minute to fill the lead with the Hurricane and Hurricane.
Players in Game 4
There is no doubt that Florida netminder is building up the Consmith case with excellent play this postseason. However, Bobrovsky has not been involved in his most dominant (first) close-out game during the playoffs. He sent Lightning home with 26 saves with a .897 save percentage in Game 5 win at Tampa Bay, Florida, making 15 stops (.882 SV%) in Florida’s Game 6 loss to Toronto in the second round.
Bobrovsky was actually inexplicable in Game 7 of that series, as the Leafs collapsed, but it’s fair to wonder which version of the Panthers will get in Game 4.
When Florida had the opportunity to close Edmonton in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final last spring, Bobrovsky turned the worst show of the playoffs, allowing five goals on 11 shots and chased off the net with an 8-1 tamping. Florida has been in a good position to send Carolina home, but wouldn’t it be a good thing to do that sooner? Bobrovsky is at his best and helps Florida do just that. – Silton
Bench Frederick Andersen was made with the belief that Kochetkov could give him a stronger chance to win the hurricane. It seemed that this was the case throughout two periods, as Kochetkov received the necessary support from the hurricane defensive structure.
However, the Panthers’ five consecutive goals in the third period have gone off track. The Hurricanes allowed 16 goals in three games. This is in stark contrast to the first two rounds where Carolina allowed a total of 18 in 10 games against the Devil and the Capital.
The first two periods of Kochetkov’s Game 3 provided a level of consistency that hurricanes struggle to find from time to time. Is there a chance they’ll take something from the opening two-thirds of game 3 and store it in another result of game 4? Or is it a game and season it instead? – Clark
Big Questions about Game 4
Is Florida ready to end this series?
The fourth win of the playoff series is a cliché that it is the hardest to exist for reasons. The Panthers crossed the continent next week as the Oilers came back to force the game last season when they led Edmonton 3-0 in the Stanley Cup final.
Did the Panthers learn lessons on how to quickly close their opponents? Florida did it two years ago in a tidy, four-game sweep featuring many of the same elements seen by the Panthers in this round to these very hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, Florida also appeared to have been handheld 11 months ago, Edmonton also had its own handheld.
Game 3 was undoubtedly the best series of Hurricanes. If they can lead some important despair into their game on Monday, how will Florida handle the urgent club pressure to avoid embarrassing their 16th straight loss in the final situation of the meeting? The Panthers can’t afford to watch past what will become a dramatic Game 4. -Silton
Is this because of a hurricane?
That in itself is a rather loaded question for several reasons, and there is an obvious presence. Will Monday be the final game of the 2025 playoffs? If so, what does that mean for the franchise in the future?
The way the hurricanes were built allowed them to become permanent playoff teams with a legitimate chance to reach the final of the conference. But it comes with a warning that the cane may not go any further.
It was a dilemma the Panthers faced, not only winning the Stanley Cup, but also making changes that would result in one win from the third consecutive Stanley Cup final. Maybe it won’t come to that point due to the hurricane. But what if you are struggling to score while allowing 5 or more goals in your fourth straight game? It could lead to some tough questions this offseason at Raleigh. – Clark
