SUNRISE — The Hurricanes’ Rod Brind’Amour infamously said that Carolina “didn’t lose four games,” when the Hurricanes lost four consecutive one-goal games and the conference final to the Florida Panthers in 2023.
This time, he is definitely correct that the Hurricanes did not get swept.
After going down 3-0 in the series to the Panthers, Carolina notched its first victory with a 3-0 win over a short-handed Florida at Amerant Bank Arena Monday night. The victory snaps a 15-game conference final losing streak for the franchise.
“There’s consistent things in games that we don’t love, and you cannot eradicate those,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Give Carolina credit. They were quick. They closed the gap, blocked some shots, hustled real hard. So they played a great game for them, in terms of style.”
The Hurricanes played their best game of the series, and they came out strong in the first period. Carolina outshot the Panthers 10-7 and killed off a Florida power play early in the game. But Sergei Bobrovsky continued stymying the Hurricanes, and Seth Jones had several key defensive plays.
For the first time in the series, the Hurricanes scored the game’s first goal. After a Jones turnover, Logan Stankoven found space to Bobrovsky’s right and slotted a shot past the Florida goalie.
Bobrovsky’s counterpart, Frederik Andersen, was back in net after being benched for Game 3. Andersen was excellent, stopping all 20 shots that came his way. The Panthers, down top goal-scorer Sam Reinhart, defenseman Niko Mikkola (who scored twice in Game 3) and forward A.J. Greer, struggled to get sustained offense going against Carolina.
“It’s tough,” forward Sam Bennett. “I mean, we had some key guys out, but we’re a really deep team, so we have tons of guys that are capable of playing and capable of playing big games. So not too worried about that.”
The Panthers offense, which scored 16 goals in the first three games of the series, was kept in check on Monday. Carolina had 60 shot attempts to Florida’s 49, and the Hurricanes had 12 high-danger chances to the Panthers’ three, according to hockey analytics site Natural Stat Trick. On several scoring chances, the Panthers were off by a beat and could not convert.
“I think just a little jump (was missing),” Bennett said. “I think we were a little hesitant tonight. The last three games, we were aggressive. We had more pace to our game, more jump and (we were) just a little sitting back a little bit tonight.”
The Hurricanes appeared to score an insurance goal on a third-period rush, with fourth-line center Mark Jankowski beating Bobrovsky. But Florida Maurice challenged the goal for offside and won, overturning the score.
The successful challenge appeared to give Florida a burst of energy, but the Panthers could not convert on any of their chances in the shutout loss. The Hurricanes added a pair of empty-net goals from Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal late in the third period, sealing their win.
“They play really well,” Florida’s Aleksander Barkov said. “They defended well. They’ve attacked well. So it was a great game by them. So we were not at our best, so we need to be better.”
Originally Published: