Bennett, Verhaeghe help Panthers roll past Hurricanes 5-0, take 2-0 lead in Eastern final

Sam Bennett scored one of his two goals in Florida s three-goal first period Sergei Bobrovsky made saves and the Panthers beat the Carolina Hurricanes - on Thursday night to take a - lead in the Eastern Conference final Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk also scored in another tone-setting opening minutes for the reigning Stanley Cup champions while Carter Verhaeghe had three assists Bennett scored a second time by skating in to clean up an attempt at the right post in the final minute of the second period to make it - ending a long shift in Carolina s end prolonged by Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns being stuck on the ice after urgent his stick Aleksander Barkov added a goal midway through the third as punctuation Bobrovsky had his third shutout of the playoffs this year and the sixth of his career with Florida s defense smothering a Hurricanes company that typically peppers the net with shots but exposed little daylight Florida had already ripped home-ice advantage away Tuesday night with a - win the opener in a rematch of the conference final swept by the Panthers with four one-goal wins Florida only tightened its grip on the series with this one and now heads back south to host Event on Saturday night On the other bench the Hurricanes determined themselves on the receiving end of a crushing loss by a jarringly lopsided margin And it marked their th straight loss in a conference final going back to sweeps in and the tilt with Florida The Hurricanes managed just three first-period shots and just seven through two periods prompting a typically rowdy home crowd to vent its frustrations with two chants of Shoot the puck Shoot the puck Carolina had a brief boost when Sebastian Aho scored on a turnover in the first minute of the second period to cut the deficit to - But Florida successfully challenged that the play was offsides It turned out Burns stick-check on Tkachuk near the blue line forced the puck back into the zone and right to Aho in the slot for the finish By the third period Carolina had pulled veteran Frederik Andersen from net and went with backup Pyotr Kochetkov for the final period It wasn t all great news for Florida Veteran forward Sam Reinhart was knocked from the tournament in the first period after taking a hit from Aho in the left leg causing Reinhart s knee to bend awkwardly