SUNRISE, Fla. — Frederik Andersen returned to the online and stopped 20 photographs for his fifth profession playoff shutout, Logan Stankoven received the one objective Carolina wanted and the Hurricanes received their first Jap Convention finals sport in 20 years by beating the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Monday evening to stave off elimination.
Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal received empty-netters to seal it for the Hurricanes. They’d dropped 15 consecutive East finals video games, getting swept in 2009, 2019 and 2023, then dropping the primary three video games of this matchup.
No sweep this time, nevertheless. Carolina nonetheless trails the collection 3-1, however that appears an entire lot higher than 3-0 does. The Hurricanes stored the Panthers’ offense fully bottled up for a lot of the sport, limiting the reigning Stanley Cup champions to 12 photographs by means of two durations.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 photographs for Florida, which performed with out the injured Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer.
Sport 5 is Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina. If Sport 6 is required, it’s going to be again in Dawn on Friday.
Stankoven gave Carolina its first lead of the collection halfway by means of the second interval when he took a cross-ice diagonal cross from Alexander Nikishin on the blue line and skated in alone on Bobrovsky. He beat the Florida goalie over the precise shoulder for the 1-0 lead, ending a drought that – relying on perspective – had lasted for both six video games or two years.
It was Carolina’s first lead within the East finals because the second interval of Sport 2 of the 2023 matchup in opposition to Florida. A complete of 364 minutes, 53 seconds – the equal of greater than six regulation video games – had elapsed in East finals video games for the Hurricanes since their final lead.
And the win was Carolina’s first in an East finals sport since beating Buffalo in Sport 7 in 2006, which got here on the Hurricanes’ technique to the Stanley Cup.
The Hurricanes switched beginning goalies once more for Sport 4, going again to Andersen. He began Video games 1 and a pair of, then watched Sport 3 when Carolina went with Pyotr Kochetkov.