SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Frederik Andersen returned to the net and stopped 20 shots for his fifth career playoff shutout, Logan Stankoven got the only goal Carolina needed, and the Hurricanes won their first Eastern Conference final game in 20 years by beating the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Monday night to stave off elimination.
Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal got empty-netters to seal it for the Hurricanes. They had dropped 15 consecutive East final games, getting swept in 2009, 2019 and 2023, then dropping the first three games of this matchup.
No sweep this time, however. Carolina still trails the series 3-1, but that looks a whole lot better than 3-0 does. The Hurricanes kept the Panthers’ offence completely bottled up for much of the game, limiting the reigning Stanley Cup champions to 12 shots through two periods.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots for Florida, which played without the injured Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer.
Game 5 is Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina. If Game 6 is needed, it’ll be back in Sunrise on Friday.
Stankoven gave Carolina its first lead of the series midway through the second period when he took a cross-ice diagonal pass from Alexander Nikishin at the blue line and skated in alone on Bobrovsky. He beat the Florida goalie over the right shoulder for the 1-0 lead, ending a drought that — depending on perspective — had lasted for either six games or two years.
It was Carolina’s first lead in the East final since the second period of Game 2 of the 2023 matchup against Florida. A total of 364 minutes, 53 seconds — the equivalent of more than six regulation games — had elapsed in East final games for the Hurricanes since their last lead.
And the win was Carolina's first in an East final game since beating Buffalo in Game 7 in 2006, which came on the Hurricanes' way to the Stanley Cup.
The Hurricanes switched starting goalies again for Game 4, going back to Andersen. He started Games 1 and 2, then watched Game 3 when Carolina went with Pyotr Kochetkov.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
