Panthers rule Sam Reinhart out for Game 3. His replacement, Jesper Boqvist, gets a big goal instead

SUNRISE Fla AP Sam Reinhart was a spectator His replacement sparked a blowout With Reinhart out of the lineup for the Florida Panthers in Encounter of the Eastern Conference finals against Carolina on Saturday night because of a left knee injury Jesper Boqvist who took Reinhart s place scored to start a five-goal outburst in the third period The Panthers won - moving one win away from a third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final You have to stay ready Boqvist reported He was ready It was - in the third when he scored sparking a five-goal nine-minute barrage from the Panthers Boqvist finished with the goal two assists and was plus-four Bokey has been so good every time he s been in the lineup Panthers forward Brad Marchand declared Huge play by him It gave us the confidence to be able to continue to build Reinhart was out because of the injury that happened Thursday night when he was skated into by the Hurricanes Sebastian Aho The Panthers are listing him as day to day It s a substantial blow to the Panthers who now lead the Eastern Conference finals - Reinhart scored the winning goal in Battle of last season s Stanley Cup Final for the Panthers the capper of a -goal season including playoffs and has more goals by far than anyone else on the Florida roster since joining the club four years ago It s a vital member out of our lineup for sure Panthers coach Paul Maurice reported We have gone through other notable ones you have to be able to survive You have to have one guy go down and still have a chance or you don t have the depth that you think you have Reinhart s goals this season including playoffs leads the association He has goals again including playoffs since joining the organization more than Carter Verhaeghe more than Aleksander Barkov more than Sam Bennett and more than Matthew Tkachuk Reinhart was carrying the puck into the Florida zone with about minutes left in the first period of Thursday s contest when Aho came at him from the side making contact with the left knee Reinhart tumbled to the ice clearly had trouble skating to the Florida bench while favoring the knee and was grimacing in obvious pain He went to the Panthers locker room for further evaluation and the determination was swiftly made that he could not return Boqvist was the pick to take Reinhart s spot the latest example of Florida needing to use its depth which the Panthers have touted multiple times of late as one of the gang s strengths But that doesn t win you games unless you play the right way and use it to your advantage Marchand mentioned Reinhart has power-play goals since joining the Panthers more than any two other Florida players combined in that span He has game-winning goals multi-goal games and shorthanded goals during his Florida career leading the franchise in all those categories over the last four years And without him Florida scored six goals in Match anyway with Boqvist being a big reason why All these guys play really critical roles for us Maurice disclosed It s good for them for the guys watching the contest to see how significant it is that you stay ready AP NHL playoffs https apnews com hub stanley-cup and https apnews com hub nhl Source