Panthers lack killer instinct in Game 4 of East Final

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers will have to wait at least another two days to make their plans for another trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

Instead, they’ll be preparing for another game in the Eastern Conference Final after a 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

Missing energy and urgency against a desperate Hurricanes team trying to avoid a sweep in the best-of-7 series, the Panthers were a bit off throughout the night. A costly mistake led to Logan Stankoven’s goal at 10:45 of the second period, and Carolina added late empty-net goals from Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal to send the series back to Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, for Game 5 on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“Obviously, the other team needs to show up and have their best game, and I think Carolina did today,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “They had their best game of the series and they’re a really good team. So, they played really well. They deserved to win today, but that’s OK. We’ll learn. We’ll recover from this one and move on.”

Florida still leads 3-1 in the series and is 7-2 on the road in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including wins in their past four road games and the first two games of this series. So, there’s no reason to panic.

The Panthers’ loss was the latest example of a lack of killer instinct, though, in closeout games that’s become a theme for them the past two seasons.

Coach Paul Maurice saw similarities in the Panthers’ performance Monday to their 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of the first round after they won the first two games of that series on the road, and a 2-0 loss in Game 6 of the second against the Toronto Maple Leafs when they had a chance to end that series at home.

And, of course, Florida let a 3-0 series lead slip away in the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers last season before rebounding with a 2-1 victory in Game 7 to capture its first championship.

“You don’t own your lessons learned,” Maurice said. “You get a percentage of them you get to keep. We’ve been pretty good learning our lessons, so that was another one.

“At the end of the day, I have a job to do: get them to play a certain way, look a certain way. I don’t think I got that done.”

What was missing for the Panthers on Monday?

“I think just a little jump,” center Sam Bennett said. “We were a little hesitant tonight. The last three games we were aggressive, we had more pace to our game, more jump, and I think just a little sitting back tonight. … That’s not the norm for us, so I’m sure it’s a pretty easy fix to turn that around.”

The Panthers dominated the first three games against the Hurricanes, outscoring them 16-4 and never trailing. But it was clear they were a little bit off in their passing and overall execution in the first period Monday.

After getting through the first period without falling behind for the first time in the series, Carolina started to push and pressure Florida with its forecheck. The Hurricanes had an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal through the first 10:14 of the second period, but they had nothing to show for it against Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Stankoven finally broke through to give Carolina its first lead of the series. A backhand pass by Hurricanes rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin caught all five Panthers skaters on one side of the ice and sent Stankoven in alone down the left wing for a shot from the circle that beat Bobrovsky high to the short side.

“Obviously, we wanted to win tonight, but they played a good game,” Bobrovsky said. “So, it is what it is. We have to get ready for next game.”

Florida had chances, particularly on the power play. But similar to at even strength, the Panthers looked disjointed and went 0-for-4 with only four shots on goal on the man-advantage.

After going 4-for-5 on the power play the first two games of the series, the Panthers are 0-for-8 in the past two games without forward Sam Reinhart, who is sidelined with a lower-body injury. Reinhart had 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) on the power play during the regular season.

“We still put good players out there,” Maurice said. “I also don’t think against their kill that formula of a power play is as important because their kill is like ours. There’s so much pressure there. It’s broken plays. You might as well play it like it’s 5-on-5 and see what you come up with.”

Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen did his part, making 20 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs, but the Panthers didn’t test him nearly enough. Andersen’s teammates helped him by blocking 15 Florida shot attempts.

“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Bennett said. “Sometimes you get bounces, sometimes you don’t. Tonight, we didn’t get that many bounces, but we also didn’t play our best, so I don’t think we deserved the bounces tonight.”

Maurice tried to frame the missed opportunity in a positive light by calling it “a learning opportunity.” And the Panthers have learned a lot in the past to get them to the verge of their third consecutive Cup Final appearance.

So, they know they simply need to play better in Game 5 to avoid having to come back home for Game 6 on Friday.

“Obviously, we put ourselves in a great position, great situation, going on the road, 3-1 lead,” Barkov said. “But we just have to bring our best. We were not at our best today and we’ll learn from this and be better next game.”