The Florida Panthers are two wins away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight season following a dominant effort on Thursday.

Yet even after a 5-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., gave Florida a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, the defending NHL champions aren't resting on their laurels.

The best-of-seven series shifts to Sunrise, Fla., for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday.

"We got what we wanted, but still obviously lots of work to do," Panthers center Sam Bennett said. "We're not gonna relax or sit back now. We know it's gonna get more difficult for sure."

Bennett recorded two goals and an assist, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Carter Verhaeghe added three assists for Florida on Thursday. Gustav Forsling and Aleksander Barkov also scored, and Aaron Ekblad and Evan Rodrigues each notched two assists.

Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves for his third shutout of the postseason.

"He's incredible every night," Bennett said. "His composure in the net and his focus, game in, game out, he's always dialed in. He makes the big save when he needs to and gives our team so much life, so much momentum."

Panthers winger Sam Reinhart left the game in the first period after sustaining a lower-body injury on a hit from Carolina center Sebastian Aho.

"We'll get him looked at tomorrow," coach Paul Maurice said of Reinhart.

Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen allowed four goals on 16 shots before he was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov to start the third period. Andersen yielded all of the Panthers' goals in a 5-2 defeat on Tuesday.

Kochetkov turned aside four of the five shots he faced.

"Sometimes it's easier to recover from a game like that because there's nothing good out of it," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "... There was nothing good on this game for us. We're going to have to learn from it. Everybody has to be better."

Forsling gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 1:17 of the first period, taking a short feed from Tkachuk to the top of the slot and snapping it past Andersen's glove.

Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 11:41 of the first. Verhaeghe retrieved a pass behind the net and cut out to the front to try to beat Andersen, but his shot slid under Andersen's stick and across the crease to Tkachuk for the tip-in.

Bennett deflected Verhaeghe's shot on a power play to push the margin to 3-0 at 15:50 of the first.

"Obviously we've got to figure out how to win a period," Brind'Amour said. "I think we came out with the right intentions but trying to do too much, and then we're not doing the things we do as a team that normally helps us. ...

"I didn't know what I was watching in the first period, and that didn't go well. I said the other day, the margin here is tight. We're not going to beat this team if we're not on the same page."

Aho appeared to get Carolina on the board 51 seconds into the second period, but the Panthers challenged for offside. After a video review, the goal was overturned.

"The offside was so important that got called back," Maurice said. "It's 3-0, but at 3-1 with 39 minutes left, you've got a problem. That was a really pivotal moment."

The Hurricanes had one of their few chances with 3 1/2 minutes remaining in the middle period, but Seth Jarvis' pass attempt to William Carrier during an odd-man rush was denied by a diving stick block from Forsling.

That prompted repeated chants of "Shoot the puck" from the crowd, with Carolina stuck on seven shots on goal.

Bennett's second goal of the night extended the gap to 4-0 with 39 seconds left in the second frame. Verhaeghe looped around the net and the puck rolled off his stick over to Bennett on the other side, where he put a snap shot past Andersen's left skate.

"In big moments, we seem to have a lot of guys that rise to the occasion," Verhaeghe said.

Barkov deflected Ekblad's shot past Kochetkov's glove on a power play at 13:49 of the third period for the final tally.

"It's not easy," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "We've got a long road ahead of us, but there's no quit in this team. It just takes one. We'll focus on this next game and we'll go from there."

--Field Level Media