Panthers 'calm' in comeback, eliminate Hurricanes to reach 3rd straight Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. – The celebration was muted, a few congratulations, a couple of high fives. The Florida Panthers were happy, sure. They had accomplished the task at hand, the erasure of the Carolina Hurricanes from the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-3 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.

But, mostly, it was just another night, just another win.

It was in marked contrast to what had happened two years ago. Back then, on May 24, 2023, the Panthers had swept the Hurricanes out of the playoffs to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996. That they won that game on a goal with 4.3 seconds remaining in regulation surely helped, but it was only part of the reason the reaction was Matthew Tkachuk sliding across the ice in an expression of pure joy.

It was new then. It is not now.

Now, as the Panthers have reached the Cup Final for the third time in three seasons, poised to contend for their second consecutive Stanley Cup win, they know that there is so much more ahead. So much more to do.

“The bigger picture has changed maybe a little bit for our team,” coach Paul Maurice said. “The first time, the fight to get to the Final, it’s just such a big deal. And then you do it a couple of times, you understand that you’re three-quarters of the way through and there’s lots more than has to happen.”

There were, of course, a few sparks of excitement, as Brad Marchand ducked over to hug Teresa Viola, wife of Vincent Viola, the owner of the Panthers, after he came off the ice. There was the playing of “You Can Call Me Al,” the Paul Simon song that has accompanied each of the Panthers wins in the playoffs.

Not many, though.

“Didn’t even think about it,” Tkachuk said. “Just reacted how I reacted. I don’t know. It was different than a few years ago. I remember a few years ago, it felt like such an accomplishment from where we were at one point. I know we talked about it last year, it’s part of the journey. Same way with this year. It’s all business and we’ve got a bigger goal in mind.”

They had gone up 3-0 in the best-of-7 series before the Hurricanes won Game 4, forcing the Panthers back to Lenovo Center for Game 5. And Carolina put the pressure on early, with two goals by Sebastian Aho, at 4:39 and 18:54 of the first period, each coming from miscues by defensemen, a giveaway by Gustav Forsling on the first and a bad pass by Niko Mikkola on the second.

The Panthers went into the intermission down, 2-0.

They didn’t blink.

“We were just calm,” Marchand said. “That’s what this team is. We’re calm.”

And then, despite the errors, despite the loss of Eetu Luostarinen after the first, the Panthers were better, more dogged, more skilled and opportunistic. They played like a win was the inevitable outcome of this game.

Then they scored.

It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Tkachuk who gave that belief some backing, on a tip of a shot by Aaron Ekblad on the power play at 7:23 of the second period, ending an 0-for-10 stretch for the Panthers on the power play.

And soon as they scored that first one, they could sense it happening. They could smell the blood, the desperation, the fear and anxiety of their opponent. They knew that, after going down 2-0 in a game the Hurricanes absolutely had to win, there was an opening.

They pounced.

“We knew all it took was one shot to get us back in it,” Marchand said. “We just had that belief.”

Their second came a mere 30 seconds later, from Evan Rodrigues on a feed from Sam Bennett. Their third, 4:06 after that, off a face-off, as Marchand took the puck around the back of the left circle and sent it to Anton Lundell in the crease.

Three shots. Three goals.

And though they would lose the lead when Seth Jarvis tied the score at 8:30 of the third period, they would get it back at 12:21, on the game-winner from Carter Verhaeghe off an otherworldly feed from captain Aleksander Barkov.

There would be no coming back from that.

They would skate off the ice, their third consecutive Eastern Conference win in the bank. They would don the hats, avoid touching the Prince of Wales Trophy, as they had also done in 2024, hand their sticks to the equipment guy, and walk into the dressing room.

They would do it calmly and coolly, hardly a trace of emotions to be found.

As Rodrigues said, “I think going into this year, we kind of knew what the goal was, right? It’s an accomplishment, winning the conference, but I think we all knew from day one what the goal was, and that’s to win a Stanley Cup. We’ve got four more to go.”

There was, Barkov admitted, some celebration in the postgame room. Or, as he put it, “a little party, for two minutes.”

That was it.

“We didn’t come here to win the Eastern Conference,” Barkov said. “Huge achievement, I’m not saying anything bad about it. But we got where we wanted. We’re in the Finals once again. We want to win the Stanley Cup, just like any other team.”

They have a chance to do it, again. A chance to face the winner of the Western Conference, either the Edmonton Oilers or the Dallas Stars, who will face off on Thursday at American Airlines Center (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC) with the Oilers leading the best-of-7 series, 3-1, in their bid for a Cup Final rematch.

The Panthers will be waiting for whoever emerges, waiting to complete the goal that they set at the start of the season, waiting to complete the task they have attacked with single-minded focus since the season started, since the playoffs started.

Why celebrate now, when you have the chance to celebrate so much more later?

“You could just see that the guys have been here before. We’re excited that we got through the round, but that’s where it stops,” Marchand said. “Obviously the toughest team that we’re going to face is coming up next. And if you don’t do the job there, you didn’t win anything.”