There are two more teams that are advancing to the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Joining the Carolina Hurricanes that advanced on Tuesday, are the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers, that advanced on Wednesday.
Washington Capitals
The Capitals defeated the Montreal Canadiens four games to one. In Wednesday’s series clinching game, two Capitals had multi-point games. Tom Wilson of Toronto, Ontario had one goal and one assist for two points, and Dylan Strome of Mississauga, Ontario had two assists. The other three Capitals goal scorers were defenseman Jakob Chychrun of Boca Raton, Florida, Brandon Duhaime of Coral Springs, Florida and Alex Ovechkin of Moscow, Russia. For Ovechkin, it was his 76th postseason goal. That is the most among active players.
The best Capitals forward throughout the series was Strome. He led the team in scoring with nine points (two goals and seven assists). We now know the Capitals will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.
Florida Panthers
Many people, including I, did not have the Florida Panthers reaching the second round of the 2025 postseason. However, the defending Stanley Cup champions have advanced. On Wednesday, the Panthers won the series four games to one thanks to a 6-3 win. The Panthers were led in scoring by center Eetu Luostarinen of Siilinjarvi, Finland, who had one goal and three assists for four points. Three other Panthers players had multi-point games. Anton Lundell of Espoo, Finland had one goal and two assists for three points, Sam Reinhart of West Vancouver, British Columbia had one goal and one assist for two points, and Brad Marchand of Halifax, Nova Scotia had two assists. The other three Panthers goal scorers were captain Aleksander Barkov of Tampere, Finland, Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario, and Sam Bennett of Holland Landing, Ontario.
Matthew Tkachuk of Scottsdale, Arizona and Verhaeghe led the Panthers in scoring with nine points each. Tkachuk had three goals and six assists, and Verhaeghe had five goals and four assists.
