Carolina Hurricanes at Florida Panthers

· East Final - Game 4

Carolina Hurricanes

47-30-5

Final
3 - 0

Florida Panthers

47-31-4

Reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers get second shot at closing out Hurricanes in Eastern final

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers: Game Highlights

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.

Regular Season Series

FLA wins series 2-1

Scoring Summary

Goal	2nd Period 10:45	Logan Stankoven Goal (5) Snap Shot, assists: Alexander Nikishin (1)
Goal	3rd Period 17:49	Sebastian Aho Goal (5) Wrist Shot, assists: Andrei Svechnikov (3), Seth Jarvis (9)
Goal	3rd Period 18:15	Jordan Staal Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Brent Burns (4)

Statistics

CAR		FLA
14	Blocked Shots	13
37	Hits	52
4	Takeaways	3
28	Shots	20
0	Power Play Goals	0
3	Power Play Opportunities	4
0.0	Power Play Percentage	0.0
0	Short Handed Goals	0
0	Shootout Goals	0
31	Faceoffs Won	23
57.4	Faceoff Win Percent	42.6
17	Giveaways	15
6	Total Penalties	6
12	Penalty Minutes	20

Florida Panthers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Aaron Ekblad, D	Day-To-Day	Feb 6
Evan Rodrigues, C	Day-To-Day	Feb 6
Daniil Tarasov, G	Day-To-Day	Feb 5
Tobias Bjornfot, D	Injured Reserve	Feb 5
Seth Jones, D	Injured Reserve	Jan 19