The Carolina Hurricanes’ first game of 2025 came on Jan. 2, as the team traveled to take on the Florida Panthers. It was their final season meeting after the Panthers outscored the Hurricanes 12-3 in back-to-back games on Nov. 29 and 30, post-Thanksgiving. There was a special moment during warm-ups as Juha Jääskä made his NHL debut at 26 years old for the Hurricanes. The visitors were looking to avenge both losses to kick off the new year, while the home side looked to go for the season series sweep. In the end, the Hurricanes got their revenge with a 3-1 win over the Panthers.
Game Recap
The Hurricanes came out buzzing early to start the game, and by early, it was 35 seconds into the game as Brent Burns scored the first goal for the team in 2025. A seeing-eye shot through traffic from Burns caught Sergei Bobrovsky off guard and the puck went into the back of the net. The Hurricanes were out front and putting the Panthers on the back skate. As the period went on, they were putting on chance after chance on the Panthers’ Russian netminder as they outshot the home team 16-6 in the first 20 minutes. Pyotr Kochetkov was standing tall in the opposite side of the ice making big save after big save. After the initial goal, Bobrovsky got into a rhythm and kept the Hurricanes from making it two or three to nothing.
After the first period, the Hurricanes took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
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The second period saw more back-and-forth chances for both sides despite the visitors having the advantage in the shot column. However, the Panthers would tie the game up 2:17 into the period as Anton Lundell was able to walk down main street between the circles and get it past Kochetkov. A bad defensive breakdown by the Hurricanes saw two Panthers players in front of the net all alone. There was nothing Kochetkov could do with that. However, after the tying goal, he went into the zone and made ten-bell saves after ten-bell saves to keep the game tied. In the other side of the ice, Bobrovsky did just the same. The second period ended 1-1 with the Hurricanes outshooting the Panthers 15-9 in the middle frame, 31-15 after two periods.
The third period saw lots of physicality from both sides, which was one of the main components of the game. Carolina outhit Florida 27-26 in the game; they’ve been a hard-hitting team more since the Dec. 28 game against the New Jersey Devils. There was some concern for parts of the period as Martin Necas missed time in the Hurricanes locker room but did make it back to the ice after a few minutes.
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In a wild sequence of events, Jaccob Slavin scored his second goal of the season after Jesperi Kotkaniemi was held down in the crease by Matthew Tkachuk. The referees deemed it a good goal as Tkachuck did not let Kotkaniemi get up and stay longer in the crease than intended. That gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead with under seven minutes left in the game. Necas, with less than a minute left in the game, iced it for the visitors as they won 3-1 to start 2025 with a win.
The Grind Continues
The next game for the Hurricanes (23-13-2) will be on Saturday, Jan. 4 at home against the Minnesota Wild for their first matchup of the season. The game is set for a 7 p.m. puck drop. Regarding the Panthers (23-14-2), their next game will be played on Friday, Jan. 3 at home against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. That game is set for a 7 p.m. puck drop as well.
