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The Florida Panthers precocious to their 3rd consecutive Stanley Cup Final with a 5-3 triumph successful Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals connected Wednesday nighttime astatine the Lenovo Center.
It was besides the 2nd consecutive twelvemonth the squad did not interaction the Prince of Wales Trophy, which is awarded to the Eastern Conference champion.
It worked for the Panthers past year, arsenic they went connected to decision the Edmonton Oilers successful 7 games and won their archetypal title successful franchise history.
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Florida Panthers halfway Aleksander Barkov, center, and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, right, airs with the Prince of Wales trophy astatine the extremity of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals connected Wednesday, May 28, 2025 successful Raleigh, North Carolina. They present beforehand to the Stanley Cup finals. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
While the Panthers ended up winning Game 5, it did not commencement retired good for them. The Hurricanes jumped retired to a 2-0 pb successful the archetypal play arsenic they capitalized connected Panthers giveaways.
The Panthers responded with 3 second-period goals to instrumentality a 3-2 lead. Hurricanes’ guardant Seth Jarvis tied the crippled 3-3 successful the 3rd play arsenic they looked to widen their season, but they would not find the backmost of the nett again.
After a sensational idiosyncratic effort on the boards down the Hurricanes’ net, Panthers halfway Aleksander Barkov recovered Carter Verhaeghe with a slick pass, and Verhaeghe buried the puck into the nett and gave the Panthers a 4-3 lead.
"He took connected 1 guy, past 2 guys and past gave the puck to maine with a beauteous unfastened net," Verhaeghe said of Barkov’s cardinal assist. "So it was an unbelievable play by Barky astatine a captious time."
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Carolina Hurricanes halfway Seth Jarvis, #24, crashes into Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, #72, during the 2nd play of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals connected Wednesday, May 28, 2025 successful Raleigh, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Sam Bennett clinched the triumph for the Panthers with an empty-net extremity with 54 seconds remaining successful the game.
This was the 2nd clip successful 3 years the Panthers had defeated the Hurricanes successful the Eastern Conference finals, but the Panthers' solemnisation aft the triumph this clip was overmuch much subdued.
"I retrieve a fewer years ago, it felt similar specified an accomplishment (making the Stanley Cup Final) from wherever we were astatine 1 point," guardant Matthew Tkachuk said, adding, "It's each concern and we've got a bigger extremity successful mind."
Panthers’ caput manager Paul Maurice said his squad overcoming the aboriginal two-goal shortage is what makes hockey great.
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Florida Panthers halfway Anton Lundell, #15, celebrates his extremity with halfway Brad Marchand, #63, and near helping Jonah Gadjovich, #12, portion Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen, #31, and halfway Sebastian Aho, #20, respond during the 2nd play successful Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals connected Wednesday, May 28, 2025 successful Raleigh, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
"That was each the elements that marque our athletics great," Maurice said. "They're each implicit us. And we’re serving up pizzas, and we don't look similar we should’ve made the playoffs, and past the adjacent happening you cognize we look beauteous good."
The Panthers volition play the victor of the Oilers and Dallas Stars series. The Oilers clasp a 3-1 pb implicit the Dallas Stars with Game 5 coming connected Thursday nighttime astatine 8 p.m. ET.
If the Oilers extremity up defeating the Stars and advancing, they person a accidental to get revenge connected the Panthers for past season’s Stanley Cup Final defeat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ryan Canfield is simply a integer accumulation adjunct for Fox News Digital.
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