Florida Panthers one win away from sweep, spot in Stanley Cup Finals

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers are one win away from their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1996 after a 1-0 Game 3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Sergei Bobrovsky stole the show, stopping all 32 shots he faced to put the Panthers on the cusp of an Eastern Conference Finals sweep.

“He has been incredible all playoffs long and it has been incredible to see,” Sam Bennett said. “It gives our team that much more confidence and that much more belief. Even if they have a big push, we know we have a guy back there that’s gonna fight and do whatever it takes. It’s a lot of fun when you have a goalie playing like that.”

Sam Reinhart scored the decisive goal with 9:55 to go in the second period, tucking a wrist shot just below the crossbar off a feed from Matthew Tkachuk eight seconds into a power play.

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Florida was without captain Aleksander Barkov for most of the game after he left with a lower-body injury with 7:40 to go in the first period after taking a hit from Hurricanes forward Jack Drury.

He did not return to the game.

Florida coach Paul Maurice did not provide an update on Barkov’s status for Wednesday night’s Game 4. Per Panthers PR, the captain was ruled questionable to return.

Bobrovsky came up with 11 third-period saves to seal the deal for the Panthers.

“I have a great sense of pride being associated with the players in this room right now,” Maurice said. “Yeah, the coaches do some things but this is the players’ time of the year and they are not looking to the bench for answers in this game. They know what the answers are and they are applying themselves.”

Here are three takeaways…