Aleksander Barkov had two goals and an assist for the host Florida Panthers, who erupted for a five-goal third period and pushed the Carolina Hurricanes to the brink of elimination with a 6-2 Game 3 victory in the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.
Jesper Boqvist had a goal and two assists and Niko Mikkola scored twice for the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, who lead the best-of-seven series 3-0. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.
Logan Stankoven and Seth Jarvis scored for Carolina and Pyotr Kochetkov made 22 saves.
Game 4 will be on Monday in Sunrise, Fla.
Boqvist put Florida ahead 2-1 at 1:29 of the third period. Filling in for Sam Reinhart, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, he cut around defenseman Dmitry Orlov into the slot and slipped a backhand five-hole on Kochetkov.
Mikkola’s second of the night made it 3-1 at 6:26. He took a pass from Sam Bennett above the left circle and took it to the near face-off dot before firing a snap shot into the far top corner.
That spurred a flurry of goals for the Panthers, the first of four in a span of 4:11.
Barkov scored 29 seconds later to push it to 4-1. Matthew Tkachuk (two assists) intercepted a clearing attempt along the right wall and dished it over to Barkov, who snapped it over Kochetkov’s right pad from the hash marks.
Barkov then extended it to 5-1 at 9:31, collecting a loose puck after Evan Rodrigues (two assists) knocked down another clearing pass and sending a wrist shot from the right circle over Kochetkov’s glove.
Brad Marchand connected off the rush just over a minute later, scoring from the left circle over Kochetkov’s blocker to make it 6-1 at 10:37.
Jarvis narrowed it to 6-2 on the power play at 11:01, putting a backhand past Bobrovsky from in front.
Mikkola gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 12:07 of the first when his centering pass hit Orlov’s skate and redirected into an open side of the net.
Stankoven tied it on the power play at 14:51 of the second when he lifted a rebound over Bobrovsky’s left pad.
–Field Level Media
