RECAP: Panthers 5, Hurricanes 0

RALEIGH, N.C. – Seth Jones put it best prior to the game.

“We want to get greedy.”

It appears that greed is good.

Taking a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Final, the Florida Panthers put forth another dominant road effort in a 5-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Thursday.

From a Game 7 win in Toronto to stealing two in Raleigh, not a bad business trip.

“When you look at it, you go from a Game 7 into a Game 1, those are as pretty riled up as you’re going to get,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “It might’ve been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite. It was an unreal start from us.”

It certainly was.

Getting off to a hot start for the second straight game, the Panthers raced out a 1-0 lead just 1:17 into the first period when Tkachuk intercepted a pass and dished the biscuit over to Gustav Forsling, who then fired a sizzling shot past Frederik Andersen.

Joining the fun, Forsling is Florida’s seventh defenseman to score in this year’s playoffs.

Tkachuk picked up his second point and doubled the lead for the Panthers when he crashed the net and -- despite being surrounded by Hurricanes -- powered a feed from Carter Verhaeghe past Andersen from in tight to make it 2-0 at 11:41.

“I just tried to put it on his stick, and he did the rest,” Verhaeghe said of Tkachuk’s goal.

Despite neither team getting many shots, the Panthers kept finding goals.

“The start’s good,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “I looked up at one point in the third period and shots were 5-3, but it didn’t feel like that to me. Every puck that goes to your net you’re worried about, or hopeful if it’s at the other end.”

Shots heading in Florida’s net once again ran into a brick wall.

Following a shorthanded save by Sergei Bobrovsky on a point-blank shot from the slot by Jordan Martinook, the Panthers flew down the ice and cashed in on the power play when Sam Bennett tipped in a shot to increase the lead to 3-0 at 15:50.

Setting a franchise record with his third shutout of the playoffs, Bobrovsky finished with 17 saves.

“He’s incredible every night,” Bennett said. “His composure in the net and his focus -- game in, game out -- he’s always dialed in. He makes the big save when he needs to and gives our team so much life, so much momentum. Yeah, we love Bobby.”

An historically hot start in a tough road barn, the early scoring spree marked only the third time the Panthers have recorded at least three goals in the first period of a playoff game.

Earlier on the power play, the Panthers lost a key player when Sam Reinhart went crashing to the ice after what looked like a leg-on-leg hit from Sebastian Aho as he entered the zone.

Reinhart (lower body) went to the locker room soon after and did not return.

"We'll get him looked at tomorrow," Maurice said. "Saturday, we'll have something for you."

Less than a minute into the second period, the Hurricanes thought they broke the ice when Aho fired a shot past Bobrovsky to supposedly make it 3-1. Sensing something was off on the play at the blue line that kept the puck in the zone, the Panthers opted to call a timeout.

After taking a long look, they then successfully challenged for offside.

No goal.

“The offside was so important that got called back,” Maurice said. “It’s 3-0, but at 3-1 with 39 minutes left, you’ve got a problem. That was a really pivotal moment.”

Following a back-and-forth second period, the Panthers added another goal for good measure when Verhaeghe generated a rebound off a wrap-around that Bennett pounced on and buried to make it 4-0 with just 39 seconds remaining until the intermission.

On fire, Bennett leads the Panthers with nine goals in the playoffs.

Coming out for the third period, Pyotr Kochetkov took over in Carolina’s net.

Entering the series with the best save percentage in the playoffs, Andersen had two games he’d like to forget against the Panthers, giving up nine goals over just five periods of play.

Helping Bobrovsky keep his clean sheet, the Panthers shut down two power plays for the Hurricanes in the third period, improving their penalty kill to 6-for-7 so far in the series.

At 13:49, Aleksander Barkov tipped in a shot from Aaron Ekblad to make it 5-0.

In NHL history, teams that start 2-0 on the road go on to win the series 80.2% of the time.

An outstanding start, but there’s still work to do.

“It was a good road trip for us,” Bobrovsky said. “The guys worked hard. We had a good game, a complete game again. We skated. We worked hard. We were relentless.”

THEY SAID IT

“Don’t think. Skate, and hit when it’s there. Be above your guy after you do it and make sure there’s a third guy in a good responsible position to either get back first or just be above them. Don’t give them anything off the rush. We talked about that.” – Matthew Tkachuk

“In big moments, we seem to have a lot of guys that rise to the occasion.” – Carter Verhaeghe

“We did a lot of good things. We had a great start, and it carried over throughout the whole game. I know they’re a good team. They pushed really hard and got some chances there. Bobby was really good, and we defended well, too.” – Aleksander Barkov

“We got what we wanted, but still obviously lots of work to do. We’re not going to relax or sit back now. We know it’s going to get more difficult, for sure.” – Sam Bennett

CATS STATS

- The Panthers improved to 6-1 in their last seven Game 2’s.

- Matthew Tkachuk has recorded a point in six straight playoff games against Carolina.

- Gustav Forsling became the 18^th different Panthers skater to score this postseason.

- Carter Verhaeghe recorded his the third three-assist game of his playoff career.

- The Panthers are the sixth team in NHL history to score at least five goals in four straight road playoff games.

- Sam Bennett is the fourth player to record 50 career playoff points as a Panther.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers are heading home in the driver’s seat.

Already up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Final, the Panthers will open up the home portion of the series with a matchup against the Hurricanes at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

With puck drop set for 8 p.m. ET, fans can find tickets HERE.