NHL | Conference finals result | Thursday

Panthers 5, Hurricanes 0 Florida leads series 2-0 RALEIGH, N.C.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are rolling.

The Carolina Hurricanes are reeling.

Sam Bennett scored one of his two goals in Floridas three-goal first period, Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves and the Panthers beat the Hurricanes 5-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final.

Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk also scored in another tone-setting opening 20 minutes for the Panthers, while Carter Verhaeghe had three assists.

It might have been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite, said Tkachuk, whose putaway off the feed from Verhaeghe at the crease marked his first goal since Game 3 of the first round against Tampa Bay.

It was an unreal start from us.

The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets.

Yeah, thats just a hell of a road trip.

Florida had already ripped home-ice advantage away Tuesday night with a 5-2 win, the opener in a rematch of the 2023 conference final swept by the Panthers with four one-goal wins.

Florida only tightened its grip on the series with this one, and now heads back south to host Game 3 on Saturday night.

Bennett scored a second time by skating in to clean up an attempt at the right post in the final minute of the second period to make it 4-0, ending a long shift in Carolinas end prolonged by Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns being stuck on the ice after breaking his stick.

Aleksander Barkov added a goal midway through the third as punctuation.

Bobrovsky had his third shutout of the playoffs this year and the sixth of his career, with Floridas defense smothering a Hurricanes team that typically peppers the net with shots but found little daylight.

Florida has four straight road games by a combined score of 22-4, this time sending Hurricanes fans fleeing for the exits early.

Its fun when youre on the road and it goes quiet, Verhaeghe said.

It feels like were doing our job.

On the other bench, the Hurricanes found themselves on the receiving end of a crushing loss by a jarringly lopsided margin.

And it marked their 14th straight loss in a conference final, going back to sweeps in 2009, 2019 and the 23 tilt with Florida.

From my standpoint, the seat I had, Florida was on it, Carolina coach Rod BrindAmour said.

And youve got to give them credit.

The Hurricanes managed just three first-period shots and just seven through two periods, prompting a typically rowdy home crowd to vent its frustrations with two chants of Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck! Carolina had a brief boost when Sebastian Aho appeared to score on a turnover in the first minute of the second period to cut the deficit to 3-1.

But Florida successfully challenged that the play was offsides.

It turned out Burns stick-check on Tkachuk near the blue line forced the puck back into the zone and right to Aho in the slot for the finish.

By the third period, Carolina had pulled veteran Frederik Andersen from net and went with backup Pyotr Kochetkov for the final period.

It wasnt all great news for Florida.

Veteran forward Sam Reinhart was knocked from the game in the first period after taking a hit from Aho in the left leg, causing Reinharts knee to bend awkwardly.

Coach Paul Maurice had no immediate update on Reinhart afterward..

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