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Chaos In Final Minute As Gadjovich Earns Misconduct For Dirty Elbow On Martinook And Smashes Puck at Morrow

Originally posted on Blade of Steel | By Tom Banks | Last updated May 27, 2025 9:07 AM ET

The Florida Panthers lost their first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, and in the final seconds, Jonah Gadjovich unleashed chaos with his dirty tactics.

Despite being down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Carolina Hurricanes have continued fighting hard, and on Monday they picked up their first ECF win since 2006, snapping a losing streak of 15 games in that time.

The performance saw all of their big names stand up in impressive fashion, and late in the game, it appears as though the Panthers could have been getting frustrated on home ice.

With just seconds to go, forward Jonah Gadjovich went on a rampage, first elbowing Jordan Martinook before flipping the puck towards young defenseman Scott Morrow.

While neither incident seemed too bad on their own, combined, it clearly got the attention of the officials, who called this a minor penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct for Gadjovich, which potentially puts him in danger of either getting fined or missing the Panthers next matchup.

Earlier in the post-season, we saw Nick Cousins and the Senators franchise get handed fines for the veteran flipping a puck towards Anthony Stolarz in warmup, and while neither of them were deserving of fines, if the punishment is for one then it has to be for the other as well.

Ultimately, this isn't anywhere near the worst transgression even in this series, but given that the Hurricanes are now down just 3-1, anything like this that can be used as motivation for them will be good, so don't be shocked to see them come out fired up in Game 5 on home ice as they look to make this a genuine series.

This article first appeared on Blade of Steel and was syndicated with permission.

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