The Florida Panthers (45-17-4) will be looking to add another road victory to its league-leading count of 24 when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes (39-20-6) tonight at PNC Arena in the finale of the season series between the two Eastern Conference powerhouses. After a rare slip against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Cats have posted back-to-back wins over the Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars. On Tuesday, the Florida trailed by three before they roared back to win 4-3, thanks to a pair of third period goals from Aleksander Barkov, who also assisted on Sam Reinhart’s second period marker, and a game-tying deflection courtesy of Sam Bennett.
The Hurricanes, 6-3-1 in their last ten games, are coming off a tough 1-0 loss to the visiting New York Rangers on Tuesday that snapped a three-game winning streak and left them six points behind the Metropolitan Division leaders. Deadline week acquisition Jake Guentzel made his Carolina debut in the game, finishing with one shot, two hits and a block in 15:12 of ice time. Pyotr Kochetkov, who blanked the Panthers on February 22, stopped 23 of 24 shots against the Rangers and should get that start tonight. If not, it’ll be recently returned veteran Frederik Andersen, who is 6-1 in limited action this season.
- WHEN: 7:00 p.m. ET
- WHERE: PNC Arena – Raleigh, NC
- ON THE TUBE: Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports South
- ON THE DIAL: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #CauseChaos, #FLAvsCAR, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Category Five Hockey
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 3 of 3 (1-1)
- LAST MEETING: @CAR 1, FLA 0 (Recap) – 2/22/2024
- NEXT MEETING: Playoffs or 2024-25 regular season
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Bobrovsky (28-10-2 .918 / 2.30 4SO) Carolina: Andersen (6-1-0 .904 / 2.49 0SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / Carolina
Thursday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- New York Islanders (29-21-14 72P) at BUFFALO (31-30-5 67P) 7 p.m.
- OTTAWA (26-33-4 56P) at Columbus (22-33-10 54P) 7 p.m.
- Arizona (26-35-5 57P) at DETROIT (33-26-6 72P) 7 p.m.
- BOSTON (38-14-15 91P) at MONTREAL (25-30-10 52P) 7 p.m.
- New York Rangers (43-18-4 90P) at TAMPA BAY (34-25-6 74P) 7 p.m.
- TORONTO (37-19-8 82P) at Philadelphia (34-24-8 76P) 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+, HULU)