Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers won Game 3 on Saturday night. And they are now one win away from their third straight Stanley Cup Final. They defeated the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 6-2 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. It might be easy to start looking ahead, but Marchand wants his team to keep perspective.

The veteran forward has been on the other side of this. In fact, he was on the other side against Florida. Marchand and the Boston Bruins took a 3-1 series lead over Florida in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Panthers won en route to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. This year, he wants his Florida teammates to keep their focus.

“I think the biggest thing for this group is we're really good at just focusing on what we need to do and staying in the moment and not looking ahead,” the Panthers forward said, via team reporter Jameson Olive. “You can't start looking ahead. That’s a dangerous game.”

Panthers' penalty key to Game 3 win over Hurricanes

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The Panthers did run into some trouble during this game despite the lopsided score. Florida endured some penalty trouble, including a five-minute boarding major from forward Eetu Luostarinen. Florida battled through it, though, and even looked like a threat when attacking up the ice.

The Panthers were without their most important penalty killers, as well. Luostarinen received a game misconduct along with his boarding penalty, ejecting him from Game 3. Forward Sam Reinhart did not play at all in Game 3 due to injury. This made the penalty kill unit's performance on Saturday more impressive.

“Those are really important minutes for them, and also confidence in your depth,” head coach Paul Maurice said of the five-minute kill, via Olive. “It’s going to happen again. If one of your killers take a penalty for two minutes, it doesn’t faze your bench.”

The Panthers are on the cusp of a Stanley Cup Final berth once again. Florida is hoping to win its second straight Cup, as well. They can advance to the Final on Monday night. Let's see if the Hurricanes prevent the sweep and force a Game 5 back in Raleigh, North Carolina.