RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Florida Panthers missed on their first chance to eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes and return to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year.
Closing out a playoff series isn’t easy, even for the reigning Cup champions.
The Panthers enter Wednesday night’s visit to Carolina for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final with a 6-7 record in closeout games in the past two seasons. That includes Monday’s 3-0 home loss with a chance to sweep the Hurricanes in the Eastern final for the second time in three seasons.
Florida is 2-2 in closeout games this year, winning Game 5 at Tampa Bay in Round 1, then losing at home to Toronto in Game 6 before winning Game 7 on the road in Round 2.
The Hurricanes’ season-extending win in Game 4 ended a 15-game losing streak in a conference final, a run going back to sweeps in 2009, 2019 and the 2023 loss to Florida. Carolina is 3-1 when facing elimination the past two seasons, including winning twice after falling behind 0-3 in Round 2 to the New York Rangers last year.
Trailing 3-1 in this best-of-seven series, Carolina had tied for the NHL lead with 31 regular-season home wins, then went 5-0 in two playoff rounds. Florida won Games 1 and 2 in Raleigh by a combined 10-2 score, marking its fourth straight road win and seventh overall in this postseason.
Florida coach Paul Maurice said earlier Wednesday he expects to have Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer back in the lineup. All three missed the Game 4 loss with injuries.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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