Carolina Hurricanes at Florida Panthers

· East Final - Game 3

Carolina Hurricanes

47-30-5

Final
2 - 6

Florida Panthers

47-31-4

Panthers have chance to join list of franchises with 3 consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances

There's Montreal, Toronto and Detroit, franchises that all have three separate streaks of doing so. And five other franchises — Edmonton, the New York Islanders, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Tampa Bay — have had such a streak once.

The Florida Panthers have a chance to join that club.

The Panthers are one win away from a third consecutive trip to the title round and can get there as early as Monday night when they host the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. Florida — the defending Stanley Cup champion — leads the series 3-0.

It would be the latest accomplishment in what has been an incredible turnaround for the Panthers, who were once a moribund franchise and now are a hockey power. Florida went to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996 and didn't win another playoff series until 2022, missing the playoffs entirely 18 times in that span.

But in the last four years, Florida has more wins than any other team in the NHL — 243 and counting going into Monday night. The team won the Presidents' Trophy for finishing with the league's best regular season record in 2021-22, then hired Paul Maurice as coach going into the following season. The Panthers went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023 and lost to Vegas in five games, then returned last season and beat Edmonton in seven games for the franchise's first title.

Regular Season Series

FLA wins series 2-1

Scoring Summary

Goal	1st Period 12:07	Niko Mikkola Goal (2) Backhand, assists: Evan Rodrigues (9), Aleksander Barkov (9)
Goal	2nd Period 14:51	Logan Stankoven Goal (4) Wrist Shot, assists: Brent Burns (3), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (4)
Goal	3rd Period 1:29	Jesper Boqvist Goal (2) Backhand, assists: Evan Rodrigues (10), Aaron Ekblad (7)
Goal	3rd Period 6:26	Niko Mikkola Goal (3) Snap Shot, assists: Sam Bennett (5), Matthew Tkachuk (9)
Goal	3rd Period 6:55	Aleksander Barkov Goal (5) Snap Shot, assists: Matthew Tkachuk (10)
Goal	3rd Period 9:31	Aleksander Barkov Goal (6) Wrist Shot, assists: Jesper Boqvist (2)
Goal	3rd Period 10:37	Brad Marchand Goal (4) Wrist Shot, assists: Anton Lundell (7), Jesper Boqvist (3)
Goal	3rd Period 11:01	Seth Jarvis Goal (5) Backhand, assists: Logan Stankoven (3), Sebastian Aho (8)

Statistics

CAR		FLA
12	Blocked Shots	17
44	Hits	60
4	Takeaways	6
25	Shots	28
2	Power Play Goals	0
4	Power Play Opportunities	4
50.0	Power Play Percentage	0.0
0	Short Handed Goals	0
0	Shootout Goals	0
33	Faceoffs Won	26
55.9	Faceoff Win Percent	44.1
16	Giveaways	19
7	Total Penalties	9
22	Penalty Minutes	45

Florida Panthers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Sam Bennett, C	Day-To-Day	Mar 30
Sam Reinhart, C	Day-To-Day	Mar 30
Evan Rodrigues, C	Out	Mar 26
Cole Schwindt, RW	Injured Reserve	Mar 26
Anton Lundell, C	Out	Mar 25