Carter Verheghe had a goal and one aid as Florida Panthers won 5–2 against the Carolina storm in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Rale, NC on Tuesday night.
Aaron Ekblad, AJ Greer, Sam Bennett and Etu LuSnan also scored, Ivan Rodrigues and Tomas Nosec received two assistance to each panthers, who were winning the road 6–1 against Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday in Game 7 of their second-round series.
Sergei Bobarovski made 31 saves for Florida, who have won five out of five of the last six matches.
Sebastians AHO and Jackson Black scored, Seth Jarvis had two assistants and Frederick Anderson saved 15 for the storm, which came home 5–0 in the playoffs. Carolina won her five-game series at Washington Capital last Thursday.
Game 2 has been scheduled in Rale on Thursday.
After killing an early power play, the panthers captured the benefit of their first man, when Verheghe raised a backhand on Anderson’s right shoulder for a 1-0 lead at the first 8:30.
Florida lost the capture of the Carolina Forward Jordan Stall at the end. Rodrigues recovered and fed Ekblad, who fired in a wrist bullet from the left circle.
Carolina reduced the deficit 2–1 with 16 seconds in the first period.
The panthers missed Matthew Takachuk on his one -hand clearing attempt, allowing Jarvis to capture and cut the AHO on the net. The nearby Aho was slightly behind, but he used his skate to redirect the puck between the pads of Bobarovsky.
The panthers re-established the two-goal cushion at 3:33 of the second period. The Gierr was left alone under the left wing on a three-three crowd, and he made a backhand feed 3–1 from Nico Mikakola.
Bennett hit the net with a wrist shot via traffic on power play to gain a 4–1 lead at 6:08 of the third.
Luostarinen made 5–1 with Nosek at 14:55 with a backhand feed from a backhand feed from under the goal line.
Carolina replied with a power-play goal by Blake that it cut it 5–2 at 16:19.
-Bield level media
