DAWN, Fla. (AP)-- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 32 shots for his first career playoff nothing, Sam Reinhart scored a power-play goal midway through the second duration and the Florida Panthers moved one win far from a most improbable trip to the Stanley Cup Final by blanking the Carolina Hurricanes 1-0 on Monday night.
Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett had the helps on the Reinhart objective for Florida, which now leads the Eastern Conference final 3-0. The Panthers have not played for the Stanley Cup since 1996, but can clinch a trip to the title round with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday.
This marks the 205th time that a team has taken a 3-0 series lead in NHL playoff history. Of the very first 204, 200 went on to win the series. The Panthers are 2-0 when taking the very first three games of a series; the Hurricanes are 0-5 when dropping the first 3.
It wasn't a perfect night for Florida, nevertheless: Captain Aleksander Barkov entrusted to about 7 minutes left in the very first duration with a lower-body injury and did not return, even though the team listed him as questionable.
Bobrovsky got the shutout in his 58th playoff start. He is now 10-1 in his last 11 appearances and has actually been almost ideal in the last eight games.
Returning to Game 1 of Round 2 versus Toronto, Bobrovsky has actually not permitted more than two goals in any contest, with 296 minimizes 309 shots.
Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots for Carolina. The Hurricanes pulled him with 3:22 left, desperate for the connecting goal, hardly even managed to evaluate Bobrovsky the rest of the way.
It was the very first East last video game in the Panthers' existing arena-- the franchise's just other time going this deep into the playoffs was 1996, when it played in
Miami at a structure that was destroyed long earlier.
It also likely was the very first time that they had fun with the Wanamaker Trophy in attendance. Recently crowned PGA champion Brooks Koepka-- a South Florida native and Panthers fan-- placed on a jersey and brought the huge silver cup to the game.
The crowd roared when they saw him showing the trophy he won Sunday. Of course, there is another silver prize that Panthers fans would prefer seeing someone in their jersey hoisting prior to too long. And the eighth-seeded Panthers are only 5 wins away now, tantalizingly near the journey to the last-- a trip that couple of could have seen coming after barely making the playoffs and after that having to get past a record-setting
Boston team in Round 1 and Toronto in Round 2.
A set of overtime wins in Carolina, with Tkachuk getting the winner both nights, and the win Monday now have Florida on the verge of June hockey.
AROUND THE RINK
Jeff Conine, who won two World Series titles with the then-Florida Marlins, beat the drum to get the crowd going prior to game time. ... It was the Panthers' 98th game of the season. This will be the second season in which Florida has more than 100 games; the most was 104 in the 1995-96 season that ended in the Stanley Cup Final. ... Carolina was locked out for the seventh time this season, with two of those coming at Florida. The Hurricanes lost 3-0 in Sunrise on Nov. 9.
CLOSE HOCKEY
There has been 261 minutes, 38 seconds of hockey in this series-- simply over 13 durations, thanks to all the overtimes-- and neither group has actually led by more than one objective at any time.
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