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The Athletic has live coverage of Panthers vs. Hurricanes Game 5 from the 2025 NHL Eastern Conference Final.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes picked up a win and shed the stigma of the franchise having lost 15 consecutive conference final games with their 3-0 victory over the Panthers on Monday in Sunrise, Fla.
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While there was a collective sense of relief from the hockey world, Carolina never saw winning Game 4 as a means to move on from an annoying and distracting storyline. Instead, it was step one in the Hurricanes trying to do the improbable: win four straight games and keep their quest for the Stanley Cup alive.
So what does Carolina need to do to recreate its success in Wednesday’s Game 5 in Raleigh? Here’s a road map.
The past year has been a coming-out party for Jaccob Slavin. Slavin’s play at the 4 Nations Face-Off — for my money, he was the best player in the tournament — finally got him the attention he deserved on the national/Canadian stage.
He’s been equally as good in the NHL playoffs, even in this series when nearly everything that could have gone wrong did in the first three games.
Plus/minus is an antiquated stat, but it’s hard to ignore when something this alarming jumps off the page: In the first three games against Florida, Slavin had an even plus/minus despite Carolina being outscored 16-4. The Panthers scored a combined four power-play goals in the first two games, but Slavin was on for just one of them.
And then in Game 4, Slavin was on the ice for all three of Carolina’s goals — Logan Stankoven’s game winner and both empty net goals.
That’s a plus 3 for a player who has been on a team that’s been outscored by nine goals through four games. For the postseason, he’s plus 10 — tied for fifth best in the playoffs and tops among the Hurricanes.
So what can coach Rod Brind’Amour do to maximize Slavin’s effectiveness? Well, look back at what he did in Game 4 — specifically, getting No. 74 on the ice as much as possible.
Slavin played 28 minutes Monday, nearly four minutes more than he played in any game this postseason that didn’t go to overtime.
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The 28 minutes were the sixth most Slavin has logged in a regulation game in his 830 regular-season and playoff games.
How do you keep Florida from scoring? You play Slavin — a lot. Just ask Team USA.
As mentioned, the Hurricanes’ penalty kill got shelled in the first two games of the series, allowing four goals on five opportunities.
It’s no coincidence that Carolina played Florida evenly for much of Games 3 and 4 and, in those games, has killed off all eight of the Panthers’ power plays.
“We had some big ones and at big moments in the game,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said after the Game 4 win. “And Freddy (Andersen) was unreal. … The killers were really good today.”
The Hurricanes limited the Panthers to four shots on goal in eight power-play minutes, and four of Carolina’s 14 blocked shots came while short-handed. Slavin, unsurprisingly, had two of those penalty kill blocks among his game-high four.
“I just think there was a level of desperation there on the kill,” Brind’Amour said. “A lot of it, there’s breakdowns, all of a sudden, guys are flying in there trying to just get in the way, which is what you have to do.”
This season’s Hurricanes have a track record of getting white hot on the PK, with three streaks of at least seven straight games without allowing a power-play goal. Carolina also started the postseason with six consecutive games during which they were perfect on the kill.
The Hurricanes’ penalty kill undoubtedly needs to be more like what it was in the last two games than it was in the first two of the series to have a chance to make this more than a gentleman’s sweep.
The Hurricanes had four rookies in the lineup in the last two games, and two in particular stepped up in Game 4.
Stankoven isn’t new to the Stanley Cup playoffs — he played 19 postseason games last season in the Stars’ run to the Western Conference final — but he’s taken his game to another level with Carolina. In 14 games in these playoffs, he’s already matched the eight points he had a year ago.
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“The goals and, I guess, points may not come right away, and you’ve got to stay patient as a player,” Stankoven said after Game 4 of the reason for his success. “And for me, it’s just trying to chip in with some secondary scoring and help these guys out. You never know when things are going to open up and you’ll get your chances. So you’ve got to stay ready and make sure you bear down on them.”
After scoring Monday, his five goals are the most by a playoff rookie since Dallas had two players (Joel Kiviranta with five goals and Denis Gurianov with nine) score that at least many in a playoff campaign. Only two other players in Whalers/Hurricanes history have scored five goals in one postseason: Warren Foegele, who had five in 2019, and Erik Cole, who scored six times in Carolina’s Cinderella run to the Cup final in 2002.
On defense, Alexander Nikishin had a breakout performance in Game 4, registering his first career NHL point on a nifty backhand pass that sprung Stankoven for his goal.
He logged just a few seconds under 19 minutes in each of the last two games. The only other rookie defensemen to play consecutive games of 18-plus minutes in a conference final in the 2020s were Vegas’ Zach Whitecloud in 2020 and Colorado’s Bowen Byram in 2022.
The Hurricanes will need Stankoven and Nikishin — along with Jackson Blake and Scott Morrow — to contribute positively if they want to send the series back to Florida.
Florida fans derisively chanted, “We want Freddie!” in the third period of Game 3 as the Panthers scored five goals to bury Carolina in what had been a tight game.
It turns out the rat-tossing clientele of Amerant Bank Center probably wished they didn’t ask for the veteran goalie. Andersen pitched his second shutout of the playoffs, playing behind a stout Hurricanes defense and within his means.
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Through two rounds, Andersen was certainly in Conn Smythe Trophy consideration after he allowed just 12 goals in his first nine appearances of the playoffs. It came crashing down in Games 1 and 2 against Florida as he allowed nine goals in back-to-back blowout losses.
But after Brind’Amour went with Pyotr Kochetkov in Game 3 in Sunrise, he turned back to Andersen in Game 4 and was rewarded.
Can Andersen get back to that early postseason groove? He’s 2-2 with a .905 save percentage in his career in the games after he recorded a shutout, though both of those losses came in overtime.
On the flip side, Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has been on the wrong end of a shutout loss four times in his career. Twice, those blankings were season-ending losses (one with Columbus, the other with Florida).
He also suffered a 1-0 loss in his playoff debut with Philadelphia in 2011. He was shelled in the following game, allowing three goals on seven shots before being relieved by Brian Boucher in a Flyers comeback win.
Most recently, the Panthers were shut out 2-0 in Game 6 against the Maple Leafs a week and a half ago, but the defending champs won the series clincher 6-1 by stopping 19 of 20 shots.
(Top photo of Jaccob Slavin: Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)
Cory Lavalette is a freelance writer covering the Carolina Hurricanes. He is senior editor for North State Journal, a statewide newspaper based in Raleigh covering North Carolina, and has written about the Hurricanes for several outlets since 2008. He is a graduate of Utica College (now Utica University) and has lived in the Triangle since 2000.
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