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There are eight spring games being played on Saturday, each by high-profile programs surrounded by questions.

Oklahoma transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel arrives in Eugene coming off a 30-touchdown season last year with the Sooners. The question is, can he do even more with Oregon this coming season? Nineteen Colorado players have entered the transfer portal since its opening on April 16. How can coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes use the portal to its advantage to fill in those gaps?

We break down key position battles, potential breakout players and must-see newcomers for Saturday’s games.

Position battle to watch: The Terps have five players competing for the starting quarterback job following the departure of Taulia Tagovailoa, the Big Ten’s all-time leading passer. Sophomore Cameron Edge, redshirt junior Billy Edwards Jr. and NC State transfer MJ Morris have an edge in experience over redshirt freshman Champ Long and redshirt sophomore Jayden Sauray.

Coach Mike Locksley isn’t expected to name a starter until deep into summer camp. Edwards Jr. had seven rushing touchdowns in eight games last season — including three against Michigan. He was often used in short-yardage situations, and the staff would like to see if he can throw it a bit more. Morris played in nine games and started seven over the past two seasons for NC State, where he totaled 1,367 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and six interceptions. Edge played in two games and threw the ball just three times. — Heather Dinich


Most intriguing newcomer: Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola has been the talk of Lincoln ever since he pivoted from Georgia to sign with the Huskers. Raiola has been competing throughout the spring with Heinrich Haarberg, who started in all five Nebraska wins in 2023, and fellow freshman Daniel Kaelin, who became the first in-state prospect to become an Elite 11 finalist. Both Haarberg and Kaelin are capable of winning the starting job, and Raiola can’t count on landing the QB1 title despite arriving at Nebraska as ESPN’s top pocket passer and the No. 11 overall recruit in the 2024 class.

Coach Matt Rhule told me that Raiola’s “courage” to move within the pocket and look downfield, even when pressured, has stood out. Rhule is in no rush to end the quarterback competition, but Raiola’s spring game performance will be under the microscope. — Adam Rittenberg


Position battle to watch: Quarterback. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano has marked this season for a potential breakthrough, and has enough back on defense, running back and other spots to deliver. To keep pace in the expanding Big Ten, though, the Scarlet Knights need more from a passing game that finished 124th nationally in yards and 125th in efficiency.

Returning starter Gavin Wimsatt and Minnesota transfer Athan Kaliakmanis, who started last season for the Gophers, have competed throughout the spring. They will be throwing to a group of young receivers who have drawn good reviews from Schiano, including freshmen Ben Black and KJ Duff. Wimsatt has started 19 games for Rutgers throughout the past two seasons but must show he can distance himself from Kaliakmanis. — Rittenberg


Most intriguing newcomer: It’s hard to look beyond Oklahoma transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is coming off a 3,660-yard, 30-touchdown season with the Sooners. The Ducks will be Gabriel’s third team during his college career, and after watching what Dan Lanning and Co. did with Bo Nix the past few years, it will be fascinating to see what they can get out of Gabriel in Eugene starting with the spring showcase.

Gabriel is no stranger to fresh starts — this will be his sixth season in college and, though he had a down year in 2021, he’s never thrown for fewer than 3,000 yards. Oregon has the talent to be a title contender, but a lot will rely on how Gabriel fits and excels within the Ducks’ system starting now. — Paolo Uggetti


Breakout player: Running back TJ Harden. With Carson Steele departing for the NFL after tallying over 3,000 rushing yards in three seasons with the Bruins, the stage is set for Harden to take on a bigger role in his third year at UCLA. Harden had a strong sophomore campaign, with 827 yards and eight touchdowns, and is primed to get more carries under a new-look Bruins attack. The spring game will be a display of a new-look UCLA team under first-time head coach DeShaun Foster and former NFL offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. But Harden — much like returning quarterback Ethan Garbers — are two of the players who should bring some semblance of continuity while excelling under a new offensive system. — Uggetti


Most intriguing newcomer: The Wildcats’ defense suffered heavy losses — both to the NFL draft and to the transfer portal with the departure of head coach Jedd Fisch to Washington. But new coach Brent Brennan brought some promising additions with him from San José State, including defensive lineman Tre Smith who was a first-team All-Mountain West edge rusher last season and had 6.5 sacks.

Everyone knows the Arizona offense will be a force in the Big 12 under returning phenom quarterback Noah Fifita, but it will likely be the defense — and players like Smith — who will determine how many wins Brennan can get in his first year. The Wildcats’ spring game should be an interesting test case of how that defense is jelling and how a player like Smith fits within it. — Uggetti


Breakout player: Defensive lineman Sean Martin missed the 2023 season, with coach Neal Brown saying he had an illness that led to him even being limited in practice. It was a blow for the Mountaineers as Martin showed flashes in 2022 in 12 games (eight starts), including registering two sacks against Oklahoma and six tackles, a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble against Baylor. Brown said Martin is back, bigger and stronger at 6-foot-5, 295 pounds, and believes he could play his way into being an early-round NFL draft pick. — Dave Wilson


Most intriguing newcomer: Linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr arrives from Cal after racking up 87 tackles last year (third in the Pac-12 with 7.9 per game), including 15 against Arizona State, and was second team all-conference. He’ll plug into a new 4-2-5 defense run by Andy Avalos alongside linebacker Namdi Obiazor, a change from Joe Gillespie’s 3-3-5 scheme that ranked 100th in total defense last season.

Elams-Orr has all-conference potential and will be a crucial piece to fixing a defense that gave up 69 points to Oklahoma in the season’s final game. — Wilson


Position battle to watch: Running back. With senior Nakia Watson and his five seasons of tailback play no longer in Pullman, the competition to be the Cougs’ leading back come this fall appears to be wide open. Wazzu also dismissed sophomore running back Jaylen Jenkins from the team due to violating team rules in the middle of last season.

Djouvensky Schlenbaker, Dylan Paine and Leo Pulalasi all have minimal experience but are returning players looking to increase their carries this year. Schlenbaker and Pulalasi are two who have shown glimpses of their talent in the past, while Paine is a walk-on who has been around for five seasons now. Rounding out the group are two, three-star freshmen prospects Wayshawn Parker and Josh Joyner, who could get their share of opportunities to show off their potential too. — Uggetti


Position battle to watch: Cornerback. Last season, Travis Hunter showed off his versatile skill set, catching 57 passes for 721 yards and five touchdowns as a starting receiver, while racking up 31 tackles, three interceptions and five pass breakups starting at cornerback. This spring he’s shown more of his versatility, and we have the chance to see that on display in the spring game Saturday.

Hunter has shifted inside to play nickelback. Cornerbacks coach Kevin Mathis told reporters earlier in the spring that the decision to have Hunter take reps at nickel was a byproduct of a scheme that new defensive coordinator Robert Livingston has installed. Plus, it will allow him to cover the slot, where the best-opposing receiver lines up often. Transfer cornerbacks Preston Hodge and DJ McKinney have impressed in the early going, while former five-star cornerback Cormani McClain has entered the transfer portal. — Andrea Adelson

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Panthers one game away from another Cup Final: Grades, biggest takeaways from Game 3

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Panthers one game away from another Cup Final: Grades, biggest takeaways from Game 3

One team is a win away from advancing to a third straight Stanley Cup Final. The other is about to once again come up short in a conference final. As drastic as that sounds, that is the reality facing the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes following the Panthers’ 6-2 win Saturday in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers opened the series by scoring five goals in each of the first two games and exposing the Hurricanes in a way that hadn’t been done by another team this postseason. On Saturday, it appeared that the Canes may have found a solution as they entered the third period tied at 1-1 … before the Panthers exploded for five straight goals to close out Game 3 in emphatic fashion.

How did both teams perform? Who is worth watching in Game 4? And given that there’s a sweep in play, what could Monday mean for both teams, knowing that one of them could see their season come to an end? Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton answer those questions while reviewing what has been a lopsided Eastern Conference finals.

The Panthers withstood an expected early push from Carolina and settled swiftly into their own game. They failed to capitalize on their first-period power-play chance but made up for it by opening the scoring with a goal credited to Niko Mikkola (that actually went off Carolina’s Dmitry Orlov) midway through the first. It was a deflating marker for Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov to cede right after a solid Hurricanes penalty kill and appeared to diminish Carolina’s confidence.

There was potential to shift Carolina’s momentum, though. Before the first period ended, Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen finished a check sending Jackson Blake awkwardly into the boards. That earned Luostarinen a five-minute penalty and game misconduct, putting the Panthers down two of their top forwards in Luostarinen and an injured Sam Reinhart. But Florida didn’t let the lengthy man advantage hurt its momentum. The Panthers killed it off and matched Carolina’s shot total while shorthanded.

While the score was tied at 1-1 going into the third, Florida regained its lead with Jesper Boqvist undressing (to put it mildly) Orlov in shocking fashion. Boqvist entered the lineup to replace Reinhart, and it was the type of contribution Florida could only hope to see from its depth skater.

It was all Panthers from there, with goals from Mikkola, Aleksander Barkov (capitalizing on a turnover by Orlov), Evan Rodrigues and Brad Marchand giving Florida a 6-1 lead halfway through the third and putting Carolina against the ropes going into an elimination Game 4. Florida will wonder about Mikkola’s status ahead of that tilt. (He left in the third period Saturday after slamming into the end boards.) But the Cats can’t be too frustrated given their win. — Kristen Shilton

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Jesper Boqvist puts Panthers back ahead

Jesper Boqvist goes through the goaltender’s legs to restore the Panthers’ lead vs. the Hurricanes.

Unofficial Canadian poet laureate Avril Lavigne once posed one of more philosophical questions of her generation: Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?

Everything the Hurricanes did through the first two periods of Game 3 created the belief that they could potentially stick with the Panthers. Only to then fall apart in the third period. Again.

There are numerous reasons why losing Game 3 is so damning for the Hurricanes. What might be the most prominent and prevalent is there might not be anything else they can do at this stage. We have seen the Panthers take a 3-0 series lead only to be pushed to a Game 7 in a playoff series. That was the case in last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers.

But through three games of this series? The Hurricanes have switched goaltenders, adjusted their lineups and sought out other alterations within their structure — and still lost by a large margin while once again falling prey to being on the other end of a big period. — Ryan S. Clark


Three Stars of Game 3

Mikkola has had quite a series. The defensemen has broken up plays, taken command off the rush and created quality scoring chances. He had two goals in Game 3 for his first career multigoal playoff game and the fourth multigoal playoff game in Panthers franchise history.

It was two goals and a helper for the Cats’ captain. This was Barkov’s 20th career multipoint playoff game, the most in Panthers franchise history.

3. The Panthers’ third period

The Panthers unloaded in the final frame, scoring five goals to run away with Game 3 by a final score of 6-2. Five tucks is the most in any period in a playoff game in franchise history. The Hurricanes have now lost 15 straight conference final games since they won the Stanley Cup in 2006. — Arda Öcal

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Panthers pour it on with 2 more quick goals

The Panthers net two more goals in just over a minute to pad their lead vs. the Hurricanes.


Players to watch in Game 4

There’s no question Florida’s netminder has been building a Conn Smythe case with his excellent play in this postseason. However, Bobrovsky hasn’t been at his most dominant in (initial) closeout games during the playoffs. He made 26 saves for an .897 save percentage in Florida’s Game 5 win over Tampa Bay to send the Lightning home, and made just 15 stops (.882 SV%) in Florida’s Game 6 loss to Toronto in the second round, when the Panthers had a chance to advance.

Bobrovsky was practically impenetrable in Game 7 of that series as the Leafs imploded, but it’s fair to wonder what version of Bobrovsky the Panthers will get in Game 4.

When Florida had an opportunity to close out Edmonton in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final last spring, Bobrovsky turned in his worst showing of the playoffs, with five goals allowed on 11 shots that saw him chased from the net in an 8-1 thumping. Florida has put itself in a good position to send Carolina home, but wouldn’t it be nice to do it sooner than later? Bobrovsky at his best will help Florida do just that. — Shilton

Benching Frederik Andersen was done with the belief that Kochetkov could give the Hurricanes a stronger chance to win. Through two periods, it appeared that that could be the case, as Kochetkov received the necessary support from the Hurricanes’ defensive structure, something that had been an issue in the first two games.

But the Panthers’ five consecutive goals in the third period derailed things. The Hurricanes have now allowed 16 goals over three games. It’s a stark contrast to the first two rounds, when Carolina allowed 18 total in 10 games against the Devils and Capitals.

Kochetkov’s first two periods of Game 3 provided a level of consistency the Hurricanes have struggled to find at times. Is it possible they take something from the opening two-thirds of Game 3 and parlay it into a different outcome in Game 4? Or will it be game and season over instead? — Clark


Big questions for Game 4

Is Florida ready to end this series?

The cliché that the fourth win of a playoff series is the hardest to get exists for a reason. The Panthers experienced that firsthand last season when they took a 3-0 lead over Edmonton in the Stanley Cup Final, then crisscrossed the continent over the next week as the Oilers clawed back to force a Game 7.

Did the Panthers learn their lesson on how to close an opponent out quickly? Florida did it to these very Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals two years ago with a tidy four-game sweep featuring many of the same elements we’ve seen from the Panthers in this round. But Florida appeared to have Edmonton well in hand 11 months ago, too.

Game 3 was arguably the Hurricanes’ best of the series. If they can channel some significant desperation into their game Monday, how will Florida handle the pressure of an urgent club trying not to be embarrassed with a 16th consecutive loss in a conference final situation? The Panthers can’t afford to look past what will be a dramatic Game 4. — Shilton

Is this it for the Hurricanes — and what comes next if it is?

That in and of itself is a rather loaded question for several reasons, with the obvious being: Will Monday be Carolina’s last game of the 2025 playoffs? If it is, what could that mean for the franchise going forward?

The way the Hurricanes have been constructed has allowed them to become a perennial playoff team with a legitimate chance of reaching the conference finals. But that comes with the caveat that the Canes might not go any further than that.

It was a dilemma the Panthers faced before making the changes that saw them not only win a Stanley Cup, but also be one win away from a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final. Maybe it doesn’t come to that point for the Hurricanes. But if they allow five or more goals for a fourth straight game while also struggling to score? It could lead to some difficult questions this offseason in Raleigh. — Clark

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Up 3-0, Panthers will not ‘start looking ahead’

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Up 3-0, Panthers will not 'start looking ahead'

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are one win away from an Eastern Conference finals sweep. They’ve outscored the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that’s lost 15 straight conference final games, by a count of 16-4. Yet Panthers forward Brad Marchand is still ready for this series to go the distance.

“We’re prepared to go seven here,” he said after their 6-2 victory in Game 3 on Saturday night. “I mean, you can’t start looking ahead. That’s such a dangerous game to play.”

Contextually, that mindset might seem preposterous. The Panthers are trying to match the Tampa Bay Lightning as the only teams since the Edmonton Oilers’ 1980s dynasty to advance to the Stanley Cup Final in three straight seasons, having won the Cup last season. They’ve dominated the Hurricanes with their physicality, scoring depth and the goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky, who now has a .947 save percentage and a 1.33 goals-against average in the conference finals.

It seems like a matter of when, not if, Florida will eliminate Carolina — and the “when” is trending to be Monday night at home in Game 4. Yet the Panthers are the last team to take a 3-0 lead for granted.

Coach Paul Maurice recalled their semifinals series against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2023, when they went up 3-0 and dropped a Game 4 on home ice. “We wanted it so bad that we tried to win the game on every play,” he said.

Then came the ultimate lesson on how not to close out a series: The 2024 Stanley Cup Final, which saw the Panthers squander a 3-0 series lead to the Edmonton Oilers before finally winning Game 7 to hoist the Cup for the first time.

Maurice hopes his players understand the dynamics at play in Game 4.

“They have the desperation advantage. You have, potentially, the desire advantage. Both teams will fight that. Can we control the desire emotion and play the game? Can they control the desperation emotion and play the game? The common denominator is just playing the game,” he said.

Game 3 saw the Hurricanes play with more desperation than they’ve exhibited in this series. The game was tied 1-1 entering the third period after Carolina’s Logan Stankoven — who Bobrovsky robbed earlier in the second period with a lunging blocker save — managed to knock the puck past him for a power-play goal at 14:51 to even the score.

The Hurricanes were finally looking like the stingy, tight-checking team they’re known for being. Maurice wasn’t expecting a windfall of offense from the Panthers after the first 40 minutes of Game 3.

“We’re not going out to the third period saying, ‘Well, we can tell this is going to work out [for us]. I’ve got an extra piece of gum in my pocket for the second overtime. That’s how our experience with Carolina has been,” the coach said.

The gum stayed in his pocket. Florida scored five goals in the first 10:37 of the third period to put the game — and potentially the series — away.

“We knew we needed to be a little better than what we were in the second period, so we tried to keep things simple and I think we got rewarded for that,” said captain Aleksander Barkov, who had two of the goals in the onslaught.

Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour was left dumbfounded.

“We’re playing better and then we just turn pucks over. It’s not what we do. I think everyone’s just pretty surprised, you know what I mean?” he said. “Just you can’t do that. In a preseason game it’s going to cost you. But against that team, and you turn it over for odd man rushes? Forget it.”

The key to the rally was a goal by forward Jesper Boqvist, who was put on Barkov’s line as an injury replacement for Sam Reinhart, the Panthers’ leading scorer in the regular season. He took a short pass from linemate Evan Rodrigues and then turned Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov (minus-4) inside out before scoring on the backhand against Pyotr Kochetkov (22 saves), who got the start over Frederik Andersen in Game 3 for Carolina.

Boqvist had just one goal and one assist in 9 playoff games this postseason, averaging 8:53 in ice time. In Game 3, he had three points (1 goal, 2 assists) and skated 15:08 for the Panthers.

“He’s an extremely gifted player. I love playing with him. He can kind of play anywhere in the lineup and he’s such an incredible skater. So strong with the puck, so smart. And that was a massive goal,” Marchand said.

The Panthers won Game 3 without Reinhart and without having forward Eetu Luostarinen for most of the game, after he was ejected for boarding Carolina forward Jackson Blake in the first period. Luostarinen was tied for the team lead with 13 points entering Game 3, with 4 goals and 9 assists.

The Panthers would kill off that 5-minute major in what Maurice called “a real inflection point in the game,” considering that Florida was missing key penalty killers in Luostarinen and Reinhart, who is day-to-day with a lower body injury. When they needed him, Bobrovsky (23 saves) was a great last line of defense.

Thanks to their third-period deluge, the Panthers are now poised to sweep the Hurricanes in the conference final for the second time in three postseasons. Yet even with Florida’s domination of the series, Marchand said his team is anything but overconfident.

“I don’t think the way the games have been played is really an indication of what the outcome’s been, score wise. They’ve been pretty tight. It just seems like we’ve gotten a couple bounces, a couple lucky breaks here and there that have given us a pretty good lead,” he said.

“But it doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything about next game. We’ve got to come in and prepare the same way. It’s always the toughest one to get, so we got to make sure we bring our best.”

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Panthers’ Luostarinen ejected after check in 1st

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Panthers' Luostarinen ejected after check in 1st

SUNRISE, Fla. — Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen was ejected from Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals after a boarding major against forward Jackson Blake of the Carolina Hurricanes.

With 3:01 left in the first period, Blake was chasing the puck back in his own zone with Luostarinen behind him. As Luostarinen reached out with his stick, Blake stopped short of the boards and Luostarinen hit through him. Luostarinen drove Blake’s head into the boards, bloodying the Carolina forward.

The on-ice officials gave Luostarinen a five-minute major and then reviewed the hit. They confirmed the call on the ice. Per NHL Rule 41.5, when a major penalty for boarding is called, a game misconduct is automatic. A major penalty for boarding is determined by “the degree of violence of the impact with the boards.”

Luostarinen was tied for the team lead with 13 points entering Game 3, with 4 goals and 9 assists. He scored 12 of those points on the road. Blake returned to action in the second period.

The Panthers lead the series 2-0 and had a 1-0 lead in Game 3 when the major penalty was called.

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