Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist as the Florida Panthers posted a 5-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Aaron Ekblad, A.J. Greer, Sam Bennett and Eetu Luostarinen also scored, Evan Rodrigues and Tomas Nosek each had two assists for the Panthers, who were coming off a 6-1 road win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their second-round series on Sunday.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for Florida, which has won five of its past six games overall.
Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake scored, Seth Jarvis had two assists and Frederik Andersen made 15 saves for the Hurricanes, who came in 5-0 at home in the playoffs. Carolina finished its five-game series win over the Washington Capitals last Thursday.
Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday in Raleigh.
After killing an early power play, the Panthers capitalized on their first man advantage when Verhaeghe lifted a backhand over Andersen’s right shoulder for a 1-0 lead at 8:30 of the first period.
Florida extended its lead to 2-0 at 12:29 of the first after Carolina forward Jordan Staal lost possession of the puck in his own end. Rodrigues recovered and fed Ekblad, who fired in a wrist shot from the left circle.
Carolina scored with 16 seconds left in the first period to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk missed on his one-handed clearing attempt, allowing Jarvis to take possession and feed Aho cutting to the net. The pass was slightly behind Aho, but he used his skate to redirect the puck between Bobrovsky’s pads.
The Panthers re-established the two-goal cushion at 3:33 of the second period. Greer was left alone coming down the left wing on a three-on-three rush, and he scored off a backhand feed from Niko Mikkola to make it 3-1.
Bennett hit the net with a wrist shot through traffic on a power play to extend the lead to 4-1 at 6:08 of the third.
Luostarinen made it 5-1 with a one-timer off a backhand feed from below the goal line by Nosek at 14:55.
Carolina answered with a power-play goal by Blake to cut it to 5-2 at 16:19.
–Field Level Media
