Sam Bennett scored twice and added an assist and Sergei Bobrovsky posted a shutout as the Florida Panthers routed the Carolina Hurricanes by a 5-0 count in Game 2 at Lenovo Arena.
Florida’s second line skaters were dominant, combining for eight points, and staked the Cats to an early lead by lighting the lamp just 77 seconds into the game.
While applying a heavy forecheck, Bennett got a piece of Andrei Svechnikov’s attempt to move the puck up the boards. Matthew Tkachuk took possession and quickly found Gustav Forsling and he moved into the slot and let go of a shot that deflected off the glove of Dmitry Orlov and past Frederik Andersen. It was Forsling first goal of the playoffs.
Florida’s second marker started with big hit by Bennett on Svechnikov, which jarred the puck loose in the right corner. Under pressure, Mr. Svechnikov sent it up the boards to Niko Mikkola, who backhanded it back down low. Carter Verhaeghe came out from behind the net and slipped a back door pass to Tkachuk and he pushed it over the goal line at 11:41 to put the Panthers up by two.
Bennett would notch his first of the night with a nifty deflection 4:09 later, with Svechnikov off for roughing (tough period for Carolina’s leading goal-scorer). After receiving a touch pass from Evan Rodrigues, Verhaeghe cut into the middle of the ice from the right point, only to have his initial shot blocked by Jordan Martinook The puck came right back to him and he fired another from the left circle and Bennett was able to brush it by a befuddled Andersen, who gave up the three first period goals on just five shots. Efficiency functioning in multiple levels and in multiple dimensions.
After an early Carolina goal was taken off the board due to an offside call, the Panthers controlled the majority of the second period and finally added a fourth with 39 seconds left in the frame to all but end it.
Verhaeghe worked another bit of magic from behind the net, circling out after deflecting Aaron Ekblad’s shot wide and wrapping the puck off Andersen’s leg pad to provide a juicy rebound for the driving Bennett to pound home.
Andersen gave way to Pyotr Kochetkov at the start of the third and the Panthers pinned one on the backup keeper with 6:11 left on the clock when Aleksander Barkov redirected Ekblad’s wrister from the right point into the back of the net. Rodrigues drew the secondary assist on the power-play goal that came with Brent Burns in the sin bin for playing with a broken stick.
A swarming and completely relentless defensive effort saw the Cats hold the beleaguered Hurricanes to a mere 17 shots on goal. Most of them were routine. The ones that weren’t were dealt with by the locked-in Bobrovsky, who posted his league-leading third shutout of the playoffs. The only negative of the night was Sebastian Aho’s hit on Sam Reinhart. Reinhart didn’t return after getting knocked to the ice, and it looks like it might be serious. We’ll cross our fingers on that while we bask in the glory of the text book road game that Panthers delivered to sweep the pair in Raleigh.
Category Five
- Thanks to his brace, Sam Bennett is tied with Dallas’ Mikko Ranatanen for the league lead in playoffs goals with nine. Bennett scored on both of his shots on goal, dished out four hits and was named the game’s First Star.
- Bennett’s three points and Second Star Carter Verhaeghe’s three assists allowed the dynamic duo to tie Eetu Luostarinen for the team lead in scoring with 13 points.
- In addition to delivering his sixth career shutout, Sergei Bobrovsky was the first goalie to ten wins in the postseason. His biggest save of the night was on Jordan Martinook, who came right down the pike only to be denied shortly before Bennett’s first.
- Matthew Tkachuk ended a ten-game goalless drought with his four of the postseason. The goal gave him his first multi-point performance since Game 1 of the first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- In a game that only saw 38 combined shots on goal, Carolina’s Jack Roslovic and Dmitry Orlov were the only players to register three.
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