Carolina pushed to brink in Eastern Final after lapses help Panthers score 5 straight goals
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SUNRISE, Fla. — Dmitry Orlov swung his stick across the right post, exploding it into two pieces, the frustrated Carolina Hurricanes defenseman left with a half a twig in his hands and anger painted all over his sweaty face.
In one emotional moment, there was Orlov creating the perfect defining image for his night to forget, the Hurricanes’ third period meltdown, and their overall performance so far in the Eastern Conference Final.
Not great in Game 1. Bad for all of Game 2. At their worst in the biggest moments of Game 3.
The Hurricanes lost again to the Florida Panthers on Saturday, 6-2 at Amerant Bank Arena. They’ve never led and have been outscored 16-4 through nine periods in the best-of-7 series, which could end Monday when they’re back here for Game 4 (8:00 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“I mean, I don’t know what to say,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said. “Obviously, that’s definitely not how you start the series or bounce back after a bad game.”
Here’s the thing about Game 3; the Hurricanes were in it after 40 minutes, and they were the clear and obvious better team in the second period, when Logan Stankoven scored on the power play at 14:51 to tie the game 1-1.
They had extended shifts in the Panthers’ defensive zone. They were dangerous. Sergei Bobrovsky was busy and had to make some terrific saves, none better than his post-to-post blocker save on Stankoven at 10:10, when it was still 1-0 Florida.
“Then the third,” Aho said, “just off the rails.”
“Turnover city” is how Carolina captain Jordan Staal described it.
NHL Tonight talks about the Game 3 loss for the Carolina Hurricanes
It started with Taylor Hall‘s giveaway at center ice followed by Jesper Boqvist burning Orlov 1-on-1 to score a highlight reel goal to make it 2-1 at 1:29.
“Just to turn pucks over, it’s not what we do,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “No one does that. Everyone was pretty surprised. You can’t do that. You can’t do that any time. A preseason game it’s going to cost you, but against that team and you turn it over for an odd-man rush, forget it.”
Niko Mikkola, who scored Florida’s first goal, made it 3-1 at 6:26, scoring from the left face-off circle with a bar-down shot into the far corner. The Hurricanes were pressing, and then they were caught with three guys too far up the ice, giving the Panthers a 3-on-2.
Worse yet, it came right after one of Carolina’s best offensive zone shifts of the game. In fact, Bobrovsky was retrieving his stick high in the zone when Mikkola scored.
“Yeah, there’s been some bad timing for sure throughout the series just goal-wise,” Staal said. “There’s opportunities for us to get one and they come right back down and score. You’d like the hockey gods to even that out at some point, but we have to also work for those.
“You’re not just going to get good bounces. You’re not going to get those bounces if you’re not working for them. I don’t think we’re doing that enough to get those few bounces to get us going.”
Twenty-nine seconds later, after another Orlov turnover in the defensive zone, Aleksander Barkov made it 4-1 with the first of his back-to-back goals.
That’s when Orlov smashed his stick across the post. It was understandable.
Florida’s first goal at 12:17 went in off of him. He was burned by Boqvist on the second goal. He was too slow to defend Mikkola on the 3-on-2 rush that led to Florida’s third goal. His turnover led to the fourth goal.
It was a minus-4 night.
“You can’t (explain it),” Brind’Amour said. “You can’t. You can’t put it all on him, but some of those mistakes, you’re not winning at this time of year when you do make mistakes like that.”
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Barkov scored again with a shot off Shayne Gostisbehere‘s stick at 9:31 to make it 5-1, and Brad Marchand made it 6-1 at 10:37 before Seth Jarvis‘ power-play goal at 11:01.
The final stat sheet was ugly for the Hurricanes.
Rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin was also minus-4, but that was largely because Orlov was his defense partner, and he got burned by his mistakes. But Hall was minus-4 with two shots on goal and Aho was minus-3 with two shots on goal.
Andrei Svechnikov didn’t have a shot on goal and was credited with three giveaways. Jarvis was minus-2 and his only shot was his window-dressing power-play goal that made it 6-2.
The Hurricanes played with rookies Nikishin and Scott Morrow on the back end, replacing defensemen Sean Walker and Jalen Chatfield, both out with undisclosed injuries. Pyotr Kochetkov started instead of Frederik Andersen. But none of that is why they lost.
“The four rookies in the lineup (Nikishin, Morrow, Stankoven and forward Jackson Blake) can’t be some of your better players,” Brind’Amour said. “Like, that can’t happen. So there’s a couple guys in there that I don’t think came to play the way they needed to at this time of year. It can’t be Jordan Staal and (Jordan) Martinook being our best players. Like, that can’t always be that way, and they are every night. We needed more out of some guys.”
Two years ago, when the Hurricanes were down 3-0 to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final, at least they could feel like they were in it, that they were close, that a break here and the series could change because it was that tight with one-goal games and two overtime games.
This isn’t that.
“Yeah, way different,” Brind’Amour said.
With how things have gone for the Hurricanes through three games, with how fragile they look right now, it almost feels cruel that they have to play a Game 4 on Monday.
But they will, and they’re not out of hope yet.
“They’ve got to win four,” Staal said.
One will do for the Hurricanes.
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