*Photo from The Globe and Mail*
Florida leads series 3-0
Once again, the cats reign supreme. Sam Reinhart scored, Sergei Bobrovsky was stellar, and the Florida Panthers shut out the Carolina Hurricanes with a 1-0 victory on Monday night in Sunrise.
The Panthers are now just one win from advancing to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1995, taking a commanding 3-0 series and putting the Hurricanes on the brink of elimination. Reinhart scored the only goal of the game. Between this series and the western conference finals, this game was the first in the conference finals to not reach overtime.
Reinhart said after the game that "The most important thing was, no one felt like they had to change their game and no one did. Everyone tried to execute the same game plan. You know, we really liked that third. It might not have been on the shot clock, we didn't have many, but I really liked our pace. We weren't sitting back. That's the way you're going to have to win games this time of year."
After a scoreless first 30 minutes of the game, Reinhart and the Panthers finally broke through. Reinhart scored 10:05 into the second period, putting the Panthers ahead 1-0 on the power play, scoring his 7th goal of the playoffs. Assists on the goal went to Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett.
It was Bobrovsky who once again got the start for the Panthers, putting together another stellar outing as the Panthers have now won 10 of 11 games. Bobrovsky recorded his first career playoff shutout with a 32 save performance. It was his first shutout in 58 playoff starts.
Bobrovsky said of his shutout that "My teammates did a great job. All those little details, blocked shots, got good sticks and the gaps and everything that goes to small details. So, it's definitely a good result for us, and it's a big team effort."
After starting Antti Raanta in game two, the Hurricanes went back to Frederik Andersen to start game 3. Andersen played well and kept the Hurricanes in it, making 16 saves out of the 17 shots on goal he saw from the Panthers, giving him a .941 save percentage and making him a tough luck loser once again.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said after the game that "It's right there. Every single game this series has been a one-goal game. They've been right there. We could easily win all of them. Obviously, we haven't won any of them. The concept is there. I think the way we play definitely we can beat them, but at the same time, we've got to find ways to score more goals."
Up next, game 4 of the series is on Wednesday in Sunrise. The Panthers will look for the sweep to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, while the Hurricanes need to win to keep their season alive and force a game 5.
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