SUNRISE, Fla. – Put away your brooms.
Missing out on a chance to sweep their way to a third straight Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers couldn’t generate the offense they needed in a 3-0 loss to the resilient Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.
Still leading the series 3-1, Florida will now try to end things on the road in Game 5 on Wednesday.
“It’s what you expect,” forward Sam Bennett said of the fight he saw from the Hurricanes, who snapped out of an historic 15-game losing streak in the Eastern Conference Final. “When you’re down, you lay everything on the line and you have nothing to lose. They played a good game. We didn’t have our best tonight, but we’re still in a good position.”
The first period came and went without either team touching twine.
One of their more aggressive starts in the series, the Hurricanes came out firing, sending shot after shot toward Florida’s net in hopes of getting a tip or a rebound. Standing tall as always, Sergei Bobrovsky denied all 10 shots he saw, with two of them being high danger.
The Panthers mustered 14 shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes, but just four scoring chances.
“It was a tight game, basically a one-goal game,” said Bobrovsky, who finished with 25 saves overall.
Even with Bobrovsky continuing to make big saves, the Hurricanes managed to break the ice in the second period when Logan Stankoven took a pass from Alexander Nikishin and buried a wicked wrist shot from near the top of the left circle to make it 1-0 at 10:45.
Quite possibly keeping another goal off the board soon after, Aaron Ekblad broke up a pass on a 2-on-1 to shut down a threatening rush for the Hurricanes.
Through two periods, Florida had just two high-danger attempts at 5-on-5.
Shortly after shutting down a power play for the Panthers, the Hurricanes thought they had doubled their lead when Mark Jankowski zoomed down the slot and scored to make it 2-0.
But after a successful challenge by the Panthers, the goal came off the board for offside.
Cashing in on 44.4% of their power plays through the first three games of the series, the Panthers were unable to break through on four trips to the man advantage in Game 5.
Always an ace in the hole on the power play for the Panthers, Sam Reinhart missed his second straight game after suffering a lower-body injury on a low hit early in Game 2.
Additionally, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer both sat out with ailments.
“We had some key guys out, but we’re a really deep team,” Bennett said those absences. “We have tons of guys that are capable of playing and capable of playing big games.”
With a little over five minutes left, Jaccob Slavin kept Carolina’s lead intact when the poked away a precariously loose puck at the net before Aleksander Barkov could get a stick on it.
After the Panthers pulled Bobrovsky for the extra attacker, the Hurricanes put the game out of reach when Sebastian Aho cashed in on the empty net to make it 2-0 at 17:49.
At 18:15, Jordan Staal added another empty-net goal for Carolina to make it 3-0.
“Tonight wasn’t our game,” Bennett said. “We sat back, but that’s not the norm for us. It’s a pretty easy fix to turn that around.”
You always hear that you either win or you learn.
In Game 4, the Panthers believe they picked up a lesson or two.
“I’m exceptionally happy with the learning opportunity,” Maurice said. “I’m not screwing around with you, I believe that. There’s consistent things in games that we don’t love, and you cannot eradicate those. Give credit to Carolina. They were quick, closed the gap, blocked some shots, hustled real hard.”
THEY SAID IT
“I think just a little jump. We were a little hesitant tonight. The last three games we were aggressive, had more pace to our game, more jump. I think just sitting back a little bit tonight.” – Sam Bennett on what was missing for the Panthers in Game 4
“We could play better, too. It is what it is. It’s the playoffs. They have a good team, too. It’s just compete. It’s a series, and we’re getting ready for the next game.” – Sergei Bobrovsky on Game 4
“You’ll always look at it in your end and find lots of stuff or looking for something better. You always play a slow game when you do that.” – Paul Maurice on Florida’s execution in Game 4
CATS STATS
- Aleksander Barkov won a team-high 10 faceoffs.
- Aaron Ekblad had a team-high five hits.
- Gustav Forsling blocked a team-high three shots.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made six high-danger saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
- The Panthers recorded just four shots on goal over their four power plays.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Panthers will try to close out the Hurricanes once again when they battle in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
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