RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season with a 5-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Wednesday.
Carter Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 4-3 lead at 12:21 of the third period. Aleksander Barkov made a backhand pass across the crease to Verhaeghe, who scored at the right post. Barkov circled the net and held off Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov before making the pass.
Sam Bennett scored his NHL-leading 10th playoff goal into an empty net with 54 seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.
The defending Stanley Cup champions, who defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games last season, will play either the Oilers or the Dallas Stars. Edmonton leads that best-of-7 series 3-1 with Game 5 in Dallas on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Matthew Tkachuk and Bennett each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for the Panthers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division.
Sebastian Aho scored two goals for the Hurricanes, who are the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan Division. Frederik Andersen made 17 saves.
Carolina capitalized on a Florida turnover to take a 1-0 lead at 4:38 of the first period. Aho picked off a pass by Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling at center ice before skating in on a breakaway and scoring over Bobrovsky's left pad.
Aho's second goal pushed the lead to 2-0 at 18:54. Niko Mikkola tried to move the puck along the boards in the neutral zone, but Seth Jarvis tipped the puck to Aho, who skated to the top of the right circle and scored on a wrist shot between Bobrovsky's blocker and body.
Florida scored 30 seconds apart in the second period to tie the game. The Panthers cut the lead to 2-1 on the power play when Tkachuk tipped Aaron Ekblad's wrist shot from above the circles at 7:23. Then Evan Rodrigues passed to Bennett before driving the net and scoring on the return pass to make it 2-2 at 7:53.
The Panthers took a 3-2 lead at 11:59. Anton Lundell won an offensive-zone face-off, then skated to the net and scored on a backhand at the top of the crease off a pass from Brad Marchand.
Carolina tied it 3-3 at 8:30 of the third period. The puck came loose off the boards and was tipped between circles by Andrei Svechnikov, before Jarvis lifted a shot to the backside post from the right circle.
Florida forward Eetu Luostarinen left the game with an injury after the first period.