Raleigh, N.C. – Carter Verhaeghe broke a tie off a feed from Aleksander Barkov with 7:39 left and the defending champion Florida Panthers advanced to their third straight Stanley Cup Final, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 on Wednesday night in Game 5.
The Panthers beat the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final for the second time in three seasons. The Panthers will face the winner of the Western final between Dallas and Edmonton, with the Oilers up 3-1 in that best-of-seven series to put them within a win of a rematch with Florida for the Cup.
Sam Bennett added an empty-net goal with 54 seconds left by skating down a loose puck straight out of the penalty box after Florida had held up against a critical late power play for the Hurricanes.
That capped a wild night that saw the Hurricanes jump to a 2-0 lead, then Florida answer with three second-period goals, only to see Carolina’s Seth Jarvis beat Sergei Bobrovsky midway through the third to tie it at 3.
Oilers have chance to wrap up West final
Dallas – The Dallas Stars are back home and on the verge of their season ending in the Western Conference final for the third year in a row – especially if they don’t start scoring goals again like they did all season.
“We’re generating chances, and it just hasn’t been going in,” Stars forward Sam Steel said Wednesday. “I don’t think we can focus on that too much, or complain about how pucks aren’t going in. We know the recipe and we’re looking to get back to it.”
Dallas is back home for Game 5 on Thursday night, down 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers after scoring only two goals while losing three consecutive games.
For Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and the Oilers, this is their first chance at a series clincher. They are trying to advance to their second Stanley Cup Final in a row, and again eliminate the Stars on the way.
“We’ve got a heck of a series here against Dallas, and we have one more win to get too. If we’re fortunate to get that last win, then we’ll be preparing for that next team,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said when asked if there was any worry of his players peeking ahead. “But right now, all our attention is on the Dallas Stars.”
Take out their five-goal outburst in the third period for a 6-3 win in Game 1, with three power-play goals in a 5 1/2-minute span, and the Stars have been outscored 16-3 the other 11 periods in this series. It is only the fourth time Edmonton has allowed a goal or less in three consecutive playoff games, and first since 2006.
This is the same Dallas team that ranked third in the NHL and matched Winnipeg atop the West with 3.35 goals a game in the regular season, and was shut out only once. The Stars have four shutout losses this postseason, including in Game 2 their last time at home.
Dallas star forward Mikko Rantanen has gone seven games without a goal since scoring nine in a six-game span over their first two rounds. His only longer postseason drought was in the first eight playoff games of his career, in 2018 and 2019 with Colorado.
“This is not the time of year to get frustrated, you’re just going to reset, go back at it,” said Rantanen, who is set to play his 99th career playoff game Thursday. “We know we’re a good team, we just (need to) win one game.”
Done in 5?
Edmonton has the opportunity for its second consecutive series clincher in a Game 5 on the road, just eight nights after wrapping up the second round with a 1-0 overtime win at Vegas.
“Listen, give them credit. They’re up 3-1, they found a way. This series could be 2-2 easily, too,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after his team arrived home Wednesday. “You don’t have to look any further than the Stanley Cup Finals last year. The team we’re playing was down 3-0 and forced a Game 7. So we’ve got to win one game tomorrow night and then you know, kind of do or die in Edmonton in Game 6, and get a Game 7 back here at home.”
The Stars have had only one playoff series since 2006 that went fewer than six games. That was when they won the Western Conference final in five games over the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in the 2020 playoffs.
This is Dallas’ 23rd playoff series since losing five-game series against Colorado in consecutive opening rounds in 2004 and 2006. There were no playoffs in 2005 because of full-season lockout.
Missing Hyman
Hard-hitting Oilers forward Zach Hyman (University of Michigan) was scheduled for surgery for an undisclosed injury to his right arm. While not providing additional details on the nature of the injury, Knoblauch said Wednesday that Hyman is “mostly likely done” for the remainder of the postseason.
Hyman’s 111 hits are the most in the NHL playoffs by a big margin. The mainstay on superstar Connor McDavid’s line had 11 points (five goals, including a game-winner, and six assists) in 15 playoffs games.
He got hurt midway through the first period of their 4-1 win in Game 4 on Tuesday night. Hyman out-stretched his arms to brace for what appeared to be a glancing hit from Stars forward Mason Marchment at Edmonton’s blue line, then immediately dropped his stick and was favoring his right arm as he left the ice.
Oilers lighting the lamp
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has multiple points in all four West final games for the Oilers, the first NHL player in 35 years to do that in the round before the Stanley Cup Final. Wayne Gretzky is the only player with a five-game streak.
Nugent-Hopkins is one of seven Edmonton players with at least five goals this postseason. He has two goals and seven assists in the series against the Stars.
Even 40-year-old Corey Perry has six goals after his go-ahead power-play tally in Game 4 on Tuesday night. That matched the most by a player age 39 or older in a single postseason – and the first since Teemu Selanne in 2011 in Anaheim, when Perry was then his teammate there.
Jets captain Lowry to miss 5-6 months
Winnipeg, Manitoba – Winnipeg Jets captain Adam Lowry is expected to miss five to six months after having hip surgery, the team announced Wednesday.
The timetable for Lowry’s recovery will lead him to miss at least the first month of the 2025-26 regular season. The Jets did not reveal the reason why Lowry required surgery, which took place on Tuesday, and came 10 days after the regular-season Presidents’ Trophy winners were eliminated by Dallas in Game 6 of their second-round playoff series.
From St. Louis, Lowry had four goals in 13 postseason games for the Jets, including one in double overtime in a first-round clinching 4-3 win in Game 7 over the Blues.
The 32-year-old Lowry has played his entire 11-year NHL career with Winnipeg, and will be entering the final season of his five-year contract.
Kraken sign Hayden to a 2-year extension
Seattle – The Seattle Kraken signed forward John Hayden to a two-year, one-way contract extension Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Hayden had a goal and an assist in 20 games for the Kraken last season. He also had 11 goals and 16 assists in 44 regular-season games for Coachella Valley in the American Hockey League, and added two goals and an assist for the Firebirds in six playoff games.
“John has been an important player in our organization over the past three seasons, making an impact at both the NHL and AHL level,” Kraken general manager Jason Botterill said in a statement. “He’s a strong leader who brings a terrific work ethic and physical presence.”
The 6-foot-3 center Hayden has 18 goals and 21 assists in 269 career NHL games with Chicago, New Jersey, Arizona, Buffalo and Seattle. He played four seasons at Yale.
Utah Mammoth sign top prospects
The Utah Mammoth are bringing over two of their top prospects from Russia in time for next season, signing defenseman Dmitri Simashev and forward Daniil But to three-year entry-level contracts.
General manager Bill Armstrong announced the deals Wednesday, the latest bit of good news for the club that just got its full-time name and is going into its second season in Salt Lake City.
Simashev was the sixth pick in 2023 and But was taken 12th in that same draft when the team was known as the Arizona Coyotes. Each of the 20-year-olds spent this past season in the KHL.
“After we drafted them, we knew there was a long process before the day we would actually sign them,” Armstrong said on a video call with reporters. “There was a lot of work behind the scenes to get it done.”
Simashev and But were teammates for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, helping the club win the Gagarin Cup for the first time in franchise history. Getting them signed means they could play with Utah in the NHL or Tucson of the American Hockey League next season.
“You never want to rule (the AHL) out, but these guys have played at elite level over in Russia and played for one of the top teams and they experienced a high-pressure culture where they play, so there’s a good opportunity that they might not ever touch the American League,” Armstrong said, acknowledging there will be a transition period. “I believe both of them will come into camp and will have a good opportunity to compete for a job, and I think they’ll be close to making it.”
Armstrong called the 6-foot-5, 207-pound Simashev the biggest defenseman he has drafted with this good of mobility.
“He can cover ground,” Armstrong said. “He’s one of the best skaters. He works at his game. He’s extremely good on the D side of the puck, and there’s some room for him to grow offensively obviously, too, to put into play with his skating.”
But, even bigger at 6-foot-6 and 216 pounds, reminds Armstrong of Buffalo forward Tage Thompson and similar-sized players who took a little longer to adjust to North American rinks that are 15 feet narrower than those in Europe.
“He’s a massive human being, and he’s learning to use his body more effectively and it takes a while when you’re that big to put the strength on to compete against men,” Armstrong said. “He plays a North American-style game. He’s extremely aggressive cutting into the net and occupying the front of the net with elite stick skills.”
It was a key step just getting them to North America to fit in with a young core led by captain Clayton Keller, forward Logan Cooley, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and goaltender Karel Vejmelka. Sergachev and veterans Ian Cole and Olli Maatta have each won the Stanley Cup multiple times, Keller and Cooley are coming off leading the U.S. to gold at the world championships and Simashev and But are also KHL champions.
“It’s something that I love to see in our young players, the winning and the championships,” Armstrong said. “If you just continue to bring in winners, it’s going to translate into our club winning. But we’ve got to make the playoffs first. That’s a huge thing.”
With the salary cap going up, Armstrong has more than $21 million in room to use in free agency and trades to take the Mammoth to the next level and end the organization’s playoff drought of 12 years – excluding the expanded format in the bubble in 2020. They won the second draft lottery drawing to move up from picking 14th to fourth, giving the front office the chance to add another player with elite talent for the future.
Conference Finals scheduleEastern ConferenceCarolina vs. Florida
(Panthers win 4-1)
▶ Game 1: Florida 5-2
▶ Game 2: Florida 5-0
▶ Game 3: Florida 6-2
▶ Game 4: Carolina 3-0
▶ Game 5: Florida 5-4
Western ConferenceDallas vs. Edmonton
(Oilers lead 3-1)
▶ Game 1: Dallas 6-3
▶ Game 2: Edmonton 3-0
▶ Game 3: Edmonton 6-1
▶ Game 4: Edmonton 4-1
▶ Game 5: Thursday, at Dallas, 8
▶ x-Game 6: Saturday, at Edmonton, 8
▶ x-Game 7: Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 8
x-If necessary
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