Panthers Dominate Hurricanes in Game 1 of Eastern Conference Final, Take 1-0 Series Lead

The Florida Panthers weathered the storm in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 on Tuesday night in Raleigh at the Lenovo Center.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 of 33 of shots faced and the Panthers took a 1-0 series lead with the road victory.

Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen only gave up three or more goals once in this postseason prior to Tuesday (Game 3 of first round against New Jersey). The Panthers beat him five times in Game 1.

Carter Verhaeghe scored the first goal of the series after slipping a backhander on the power play past Frederik Andersen 8:30 into the game, putting the Panthers up 1-0 with his fifth goal of the postseason.

Florida quickly took a 2-0 lead in the first after defenseman Aaron Ekblad rifled his third goal of the playoffs in, doubling the lead 12:29 into the game.

Carolina found an ever important goal in the dying seconds of the first after their top scorer Sebastian Aho redirected a shot off his skate and in with 15.7 seconds left in the first, cutting the Panthers lead to 2-1.

The Panthers restored their two-goal lead 3:30 into the second period after Niko Mikkola jumped up in the rush and fed a backhand pass to A.J. Greer, who buried his second goal of the playoffs, making it 3-1 in favor of Florida.

Sam Bennett, who entered the series as Florida’s top goal scorer with six in the playoffs, found the back of the net again. With the Panthers on the power play in the third, Bennett beat Andersen 6:08 into the final period of regulation with his team-leading seventh goal of the postseason, extending the lead to 4-1. The goal came on Florida’s first shot in over 15 minutes of game time.

Eetu Luostarinen added to the barrage, making it 5-1 with 5:04 to go in the third with his fourth goal of the playoffs.

The Hurricanes stopped the bleeding after Jackson Blake scored a power play goal with 3:41 to go in regulation, cutting the deficit to 5-2. It was too little too late for the home team to overcome the hole they were in, as they dropped Game 1 of the series the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Florida will look to build on the early series lead in Game 2,  which will once again be in Raleigh,  at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.