Recap: Canes Fight To The Finish, But Fall In Game 5

RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes put together a stout showing but ultimately fell short on Wednesday, falling 5-3 to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.

GAME SUMMARY | BOX SCORE | PLAYOFF HUB

Picking up where they left off on Monday, the Canes came flying out of the gates and were rewarded just before the five-minute mark, when Sebastian Aho picked off a Gustav Forsling pass in the neutral zone, then picked his spot under Sergei Bobrovsky's glove to open the scoring. But No. 20 wasn't done there - with 1:06 left in the frame, Aho doubled his team's lead after intercepting another Florida pass and wiring a wrister through Bobrovsky from the right circle.

After the break, though, the quick-strike Cats fought back. Finding their footing with their third power-play of the night, the Panthers struck twice in a span of just 30 seconds to even the score. And four minutes following that flurry, they tacked on another to take their first lead of the night.

Trailing entering the third period, the Canes' push seemingly found a hero in Seth Jarvis, who capitalized on a bang-bang play with a chip shot past Bobrovsky at 8:30 to tie the game at three. But as both teams sought the game's third go-ahead goal, a stellar individual effort from Florida's Aleksander Barkov set up a dagger from Carter Verhaeghe, and an empty-net marker from Sam Bennett helped the Cats take the win.

Stats & Standouts

• Sebastian Aho became the sixth player in franchise history to record multiple goals in a potential elimination game. His six goals in such contests are the second-most in franchise history.
• The loss ends Carolina's season, but the Canes' nine wins this postseason mark a new team high under Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour. It's also the deepest playoff run the Hurricanes have enjoyed since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.

They Said It...

Rod Brind'Amour on his team's strong start being followed up by a tough stretch in the second period...

"We couldn’t have done much better, then we take an O-zone penalty, they score on that. A little floater with a nice tip. But all of a sudden, it kind of got them going. A couple of errors that we made in coverage, we gave them a little room and they put it in the net. We fought back and tied it up, then their best player made an elite play.”

Sebastian Aho on taking positives away from the postseason run...

“To me, you either win or lose the series. It doesn’t matter if you lose in four or seven, whatever, you lose the series. But it’s something to be proud of that the guys show up for work and never quit, and that’s a great thing, but at the end of the day, we weren’t able to push through. That’s a great hockey team. One team has beaten them in the past three seasons, right? So we knew it was going to be a big task to try to beat them, and we truly believe that we have what it takes, but we obviously fell short yet again."

Seth Jarvis on the Canes not being able to find a power-play goal in Game 5...

“I thought we had looks. We had a couple of bobbled pucks, but for the most part, I didn’t hate how we were looking. Near the end, I think we got a little bit more urgent, obviously. We were putting more pucks to the net. We could have done that a little earlier. Obviously you need to score in games like this. They did and we didn’t. That’s kind of the result of it.”

Jordan Staal looking ahead to the summer and the 2025-26 season...

“There’s always an opportunity to get better. I’m sure as an organization and management, they’re going to try and get better. We’re going to obviously have to be better. There’s still room for improvement and I think the group we have, the core we have here, adding to it will only make us more dangerous.”

What's Next?

• The Hurricanes will hold exit interviews later this week. Stay tuned to Hurricanes.com for full coverage.