The Carolina Hurricanes remain one of two undefeated teams left in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Hurricanes extended their second-round series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers to 3-0 with a road victory on Thursday night.
Here’s a look at Thursday’s highlights and the upcoming schedule as the second round continues this weekend.
Carolina Hurricanes 4, Philadelphia Flyers 1 (CAR leads series 3-0)
Montreal Canadiens at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. ET (BUF leads series 1-0)
Vegas Golden Knights at Anaheim Ducks, 9:30 p.m. ET (Series tied 1-1)
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal took advantage of a first-period tripping penalty by Sean Couturier by opening scoring on the power play.
Jaccob Slavin pulled a puck off the goal line to preserve the Canes’ lead before Trevor Zegras tied the game early in the second.
Canes goaltender Frederik Andersen kept the score even with a highlight-reel stop on the Flyers’ Alex Bump later in the second.
The Flyers had the chance to even up the game on a second-period power play, only to give up a shorthanded goal to the Canes’ Jalen Chatfield.
Philadelphia was again unable to capitalize when given 1:15 on the two-man advantage later in the period.
The Canes put the game out of reach with two third-period goals in a span of four minutes, including Andrei Svechnikov’s first tally of the playoffs and a breakaway score from Nikolaj Ehlers.
The Flyers will be playing with their season on the line when the puck drops for Game 4 on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET in Philadelphia.
Finding a way to activate the power play, which went 0-for-5 in Thursday’s loss, will be key to Rick Tocchet’s hopes of keeping his team alive long enough to return to Raleigh for Game 5 on Monday.
The Canes are meanwhile one more victory away from a second straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. The victors of this series will take on either the Buffalo Sabres or Montreal Canadiens for a shot at the Stanley Cup Final.
