Panthers advance to 3rd straight Stanley Cup Final with Game 5 win against Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season with a 5-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Wednesday.

The defending Stanley Cup champions, who defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games last season, will play either the Oilers or the Dallas Stars. Edmonton leads that best-of-7 series 3-1 with Game 5 in Dallas on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“We didn’t come here to win the Eastern Conference,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “I’m not saying anything bad about it, but we got where we wanted; we’re in the Final once again, and we want to win the Stanley Cup just like any other team.

“We’re happy with what we achieved, and the way we achieved it was tough. Carolina played so well. The way we managed to win this game is for sure one that you’ll remember.”

Carter Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 4-3 lead at 12:21 of the third period. Barkov made a backhand pass across the crease to Verhaeghe, who scored at the right post. Barkov circled the net and held off Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov before slipping the puck around Hurricanes forward Eric Robinson.

“He took on one guy, then two guys and then gave the puck to me with a pretty open net,” Verhaeghe said. “So, it was an unbelievable play by ‘Barkie’ at a critical point.”

Sam Bennett scored his NHL-leading 10th playoff goal into an empty net with 54 seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” Bennett said. “We’ve been on both sides of it. We know there’s a lot more work to do, but I think you have to enjoy every moment along the way, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Matthew Tkachuk and Bennett each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for the Panthers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division. Barkov had two assists and finished the series with seven points (three goals, four assists).

Sebastian Aho scored two goals for the Hurricanes, who are the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan Division. Frederik Andersen made 20 saves.

“At the end of the day, we weren’t able to push through and beat them,” Aho said. “Obviously that’s a great hockey team. One team has beat them [in the playoffs] in the past three seasons. We knew it was going to be a big test to try to beat them.

“I truly believe we have what it takes, but we fell short yet again.”

The Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals each in five games before losing the first three games of the East final.

“We came off a real hard, physical series, and all of a sudden, it went to another level,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It took us a little time to adapt to it, and I thought we did. We were good. You just can’t give these guys a 3-0 lead and expect to come back. It’s a big hole.”

Carolina capitalized on a Florida turnover to take a 1-0 lead at 4:39 of the first period. Aho picked off a pass by Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling at center ice before skating in on a breakaway and scoring over Bobrovsky’s left pad.

Aho’s second goal pushed the lead to 2-0 at 18:54. Niko Mikkola tried to move the puck along the boards in the neutral zone, but Seth Jarvis tipped the puck to Aho, who skated to the top of the right circle and scored on a wrist shot between Bobrovsky’s blocker and body.

Florida scored 30 seconds apart in the second period to tie the game. The Panthers cut the lead to 2-1 on the power play when Tkachuk tipped Aaron Ekblad’s wrist shot from above the circles at 7:23. Then Evan Rodrigues passed to Bennett before driving the net and scoring on the return pass to make it 2-2 at 7:53.

The Panthers took a 3-2 lead at 11:59. Anton Lundell won an offensive-zone face-off, then skated to the net and scored on a backhand at the top of the crease off a pass from Brad Marchand.

“We carried on that moment, and we got to our game,” Marchand said. “We knew they were going to come out the way they did, and we knew all it took was one shot to get us back in it. We just had that belief. It was great we were able to pull it out.”

Carolina tied it 3-3 at 8:30 of the third period. The puck came loose off the boards and was tipped between the circles by Andrei Svechnikov, before Jarvis lifted a shot to the backside post from the right circle.

“It was a tough four-minute stretch but we responded well,” Jarvis said. “But giving up three goals that quickly, it’s tough for any team to come back from that.”

NOTES: Florida forward Eetu Luostarinen left the game with an injury after the first period. … The Panthers are the ninth franchise in NHL history to make three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances. The most recent was the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-22). … Ten Florida players have at least 10 points in the playoffs. … Bennett (four goals, three assists) and Barkov were the Panthers' leading scorers in the series. … Jarvis had 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) to lead the Hurricanes in playoff scoring. Aho was second with 15 points (seven goals, eight assists).