Category: NHL

SUNRISE — Jesper Boqvist had a tall task: Fill in for the Panthers’ leading goalscorer, Sam Reinhart, on the team’s top line after Reinhart was ruled out with an injury. Boqvist did his best Reinhart impersonation, scoring the go-ahead goal in the third period to put the Panthers up 2-1. Little did he know that his teammates would soon join in on the fun. Florida scored five times in rapid succession in the third period, beating Carolina 6-2 and taking Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday. The loss puts the Hurricanes on the brink of elimination. Florida can sweep Carolina — like it did...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Panthers have a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final after beating the Hurricanes in Game 2 on Thursday. But the mere two-game lead undersells Florida’s dominance in the series. After beating Carolina 5-2 in Game 1, the Panthers put together an even more lopsided performance on Thursday, beating the Hurricanes 5-0 at the Lenovo Center. Now Florida returns to Sunrise with a chance to sweep Carolina in the conference final for the second time in three years.  The Panthers seized control of the game almost immediately. The Hurricanes turned the puck over in their own...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Panthers star Sam Reinhart left Game 2 against the Hurricanes with a lower-body injury, the Panthers announced during the first intermission. Reinhart took a big lower-body hit from Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, left the game and did not return. Reinhart, a first-line forward, has four goals and seven assists in the playoffs this year. His 11 playoff points were tied for third on the team entering Thursday’s Game 2. Reinhart had a team-leading 39 goals and 81 points during the regular season. Here’s the hit from Aho that took out Reinhart. We’ll see if Reino comes...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Florida coach Paul Maurice fielded a question about Sergei Bobrovsky lifting weights before Game 1. The Panthers coach said he was not in a position to critique his goalie’s fitness routine. “It works for him,” Maurice said. “Clearly (he is) in much better shape than I am, so I don’t think I should judge him.” Bobrovsky was in nearly perfect shape Tuesday night, holding the Carolina Hurricanes to two goals (one of them coming late in the game) and making several quality saves in the Panthers’ 5-2 win over the Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final at the Lenovo...

TORONTO — The Panthers and Maple Leafs were knotted at zero when they came out of the locker room for the second period. Both teams had solid stretches of play in the first period. But an explosive seven minutes clinched the Panthers’ victory, sending Florida to its third straight Eastern Conference final with a 6-1 win over the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday. The Panthers will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final — a rematch of the 2023 conference finals. The first game is on Tuesday. The Panthers dominated the first 10 minutes of the game,...

SUNRISE — Toronto captain Auston Matthews has drawn the ire of Maple Leafs fans. The three-time league-leading goal scorer went five games and two periods without scoring against the Panthers. But Matthews scored arguably the biggest goal of Toronto’s season, putting the Maple Leafs on the board in a 2-0 win over Florida in Game 6 on Friday. The goal kept the Maple Leafs’ season alive, forcing Game 7 in Toronto on Sunday. Both teams were scoreless through the first 44 minutes of the game. But Gustav Forsling’s errant pass ended up on Mitch Marner’s stick. Marner dished a pass to Matthews,...

Jesper Boqvist has not been one of the Florida Panthers’ main players in the postseason, playing an average of about seven minutes in the seven playoff games he played in entering Wednesday night’s Game 5. But with Evan Rodrigues out due to an injury he sustained in Florida’s Game 4 win, Boqvist got the call to play alongside captain Aleksander Barkov and top scorer Sam Reinhart. Boqvist matched the stars’ play, scoring his first career playoff goal as the Panthers rolled to a resounding 6-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, taking a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series....

The Florida Panthers are in trouble, and it’s crazy to think they aren’t after Wednesday night. It’s the kind of trouble they’ve gotten out of in a way that makes their past couple of playoff springs so memorable. It’s trouble nonetheless to be down 2-0 after losing Game 2 in Toronto 4-3. That’s two one-goal games against Toronto, the kind the Panthers love to play. And they lost the both games in a manner that’s either a lesson for them and a credit to Toronto. Here’s the larger problem in these two games: The Panthers haven’t looked like the Panthers. Not really. The always-disciplined...

Every time the Panthers tried to seize some momentum from the Maple Leafs in Game 2 on Wednesday night, Toronto had an answer. Florida seemed poised to get the edge over host Toronto and maybe even the series at one game each as Anton Lundell tied the game at three 5:33 into the third period. But Mitch Marner scored 17 seconds later, putting the Maple Leafs back ahead and Toronto hung on to win 4-3 and take a 2-0 lead over Florida in the second-round series. Aleksander Barkov made sure the Panthers would not be in an early hole. Five seconds into Florida’s first power play of the night, he...

The Maple Leafs opened the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by punching the Florida Panthers in the mouth. The Panthers punched back but still fell short. Toronto scored just 33 seconds into the game and beat Florida 5-4 in Game 1 of the second round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Monday, starting the series with a bang. The Maple Leafs took a 4-1 lead after two periods, but the Panthers fought back and scored three third-period goals. But a late third period score by Toronto kept Florida from completing the comeback. The Maple Leafs, fresh off a six-game series against Ottawa,...