RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It didn’t matter that the Florida Panthers were playing 48 hours since having to win a Game 7 on the road to reach the Eastern Conference final.
Nor did it matter they were playing in front of a rowdy hostile crowd, against a team that had yet to lose at home and had been lockdown-elite on the penalty kill.
Instead, the Panthers methodically jumped on the Carolina Hurricanes, immediately ripped away home-ice advantage and played with an edge befitting their status as reigning Stanley Cup champions in Tuesday night’s 5-2 win in Game 1.
“I don’t know if it’s a statement,” said Carter Verhaeghe, who had a power-play goal midway through the first period to put Florida ahead and keep Carolina in chase mode for good. “They’re going to come back with their best. We’re just trying to go in and play our game every single time.”
To listen to Verhaeghe and coach Paul Maurice, it wasn’t the result of some lights-out performance of relentless perfection. There were hiccups in transitioning from series against Tampa Bay and Toronto, teams with different styles that rely on, as Maurice said, being “so dynamic up the middle of the ice” compared to a different rush style with a Carolina team that relies on a an aggressive forecheck to pressure and control the puck in the offensive zone.
“I think the best growth in our team comes off losses,” Maurice said. “I think that’s where we learn more. I didn’t love our game tonight. But I understood it. Significant style change, so the Game 1 is that first look at what your game looks like in a completely different opponent.”
Maybe so, but it was more than good enough.
The Panthers were coming off a 6-1 win on Sunday in Game 7 of the second-round series against the Maple Leafs. That set up a rematch of the 2023 East final swept by the Panthers by four one-game margins, including a four-overtime thriller in that Game 1 that ended on Matthew Tkachuk’s winner during the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
The Panthers waited to fly to Carolina on Monday to stick with their usual postgame routine of staying in the road city to rest and recover. Then they went on to take care of this game with far less theatrics need to win that epic ’23 opener, this time against a Hurricanes team that was 5-0 at home in the playoffs and had been off since closing out the conference’s top-seeded Washington Capitals last Thursday.
“We know what to do and we know the recipe and our identity,” said fourth-line forward A.J. Greer, who had a critical second-period goal to restore a two-goal margin.
Verhaeghe started by finding space alone near the edge of the crease on a first-period power play, then backhanded a rising puck past Frederik Andersen and into the upper right corner of the net for quick strike against a Hurricanes kill that had been the postseason’s best by allowing just two goals through 30 attempts in two rounds.
Aaron Ekblad followed four minutes later for the tone-setting 2-0 lead. Then Greer answered Sebastian Aho’s off-the-skate score in the final seconds of the first period by finishing a perfect 2-on-1 backhanded feed from Niko Mikkola, before Sam Bennett followed with another power-play score with Brad Marchand screening Andersen in the third.
Eetu Luostarinen added a goal for a 5-1 lead with the outcome long decided, making it five different players finding the net and 11 players tallying at least one point.
Meanwhile, Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 31 saves in his latest Carolina-befuddling effort, notably a glove stop on Jack Roslovic’s shot from the slot after losing his stick midway through the second.
“They’re going to do the same thing we’re doing,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “You can tell they do very similar stuff and they try to grind you down too. They’re here for a reason, they know how to do it well.”
By the end, the only buzz left came from Marchand and Carolina’s Shayne Gostisbehere getting into a third-period tussle, with Gostisbehere saying he shot a puck at Marchand after the veteran acquired from Boston at the trade deadline took “a run at me.” Marchand ultimately earned a game-misconduct penalty and had an official escorting him to the locker-room tunnel, with Marchand barking back toward center ice the whole time.
It was the perfect defiant tone for Florida’s win.
“Our depth has been incredible all year and especially in the playoffs,” Bennett said. “Every line is showing up, all our defense, Bobi obviously. But it really has been a full team effort every single night and it makes it a lot easier when you have every guy stepping up and playing like that.”
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