Hurricanes get another home-ice shot at Panthers with Game 5 in Eastern final
RALEIGH N C AP It s one win in a series otherwise going resoundingly against them The Carolina Hurricanes still face a long and improbable climb ahead against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers For now the reward from Monday s sweep-averting road win is solely another chance to play at home in Wednesday night s Meeting of the Eastern Conference final I don t really think mentality changes if you re up three or down three coach Rod Brind Amour declared Tuesday Like what are you going to try harder Everybody s trying their hardest and everybody wants to win that next tournament Carolina s - win Monday night staved off elimination while ending a nasty conference-final losing streak games dating to But playing on means keeping fleeting hope alive even against a tested and deep champion Florida swept Carolina in the Eastern final with four one-goal wins that gave the Hurricanes reason to feel they were in it the whole way This had been anything but starting with the - loss in Meeting followed by a - romp that drew frustrated chants from a rowdy-turned-despondent home crowd In Saturday s Event Florida turned a - meeting entering the third into a - win that moved them within a win of the Cup final Getting to closeout opportunities is not new for the Panthers who won nine of their first series under Paul Maurice Also not new letting the first chance or three in one incident at that closeout win slip away Monday s loss dropped Florida s record in possible closeout games since the start of the playoffs to just - It begged this question of Maurice Do the Panthers learn from those missed chances I don t believe in it I don t believe in that idea at all Maurice noted If it was just a learned thing you d be - every year It s just not real We had won seven of eight playoff games going into Monday night They were better at their contest than we were at our competition We ve managed to not have that happen very often That stated he is a big believer in learning The tape Tuesday displayed there was much to learn coming out of Competition and players knew lessons were coming That s how the day went and then it was off to the plane Simple The first four or five minutes I would call them names I m mindful of the hotline now so the names aren t nearly as good as they used to be Maurice reported Then I show them the video that attaches them to the names that I ve called them and then we re going to do a bunch of video on something technical about where we ve got to be better where we can be better so we can see it Lengthy injury statement Florida s Sam Reinhart Niko Mikkola and A J Greer all missed Contest with injuries all skated Tuesday and are expected to skate again Wednesday morning before determinations are made for Championship Reinhart left Thursday s Contest in the first period after a low hit by Carolina s Sebastian Aho Greer appeared to injure himself delivering a hit on Jordan Staal in Championship while Mikkola was shaken up after crashing hard into the boards his right shoulder hitting first that same night Carolina meanwhile started the series with defenseman Jalen Chatfield sidelined while Sean Walker has missed the past two games since taking a jarring open-ice hit from Greer in Competition That s left the Hurricanes without two of their top six blue-liners Young legs There s been at least one promising expansion for Carolina in the play of its youngsters forward Logan Stankoven and defenseman Alexander Nikishin The -year-old Stankoven the primary return in the Hurricanes deadline-deal pivot out of the Mikko Rantanen business has scored in two straight games and is tied for second on the club with five playoff goals His Competition winner came off a nifty feed from the -year-old Nikishin marking the first NHL point for a top blue-line prospect pressed into three playoff games for his first NHL action due to Carolina s blue-line injuries Road vs home success Florida has seven road playoff wins the past four coming by a combined outcome of - going back to matching - wins in Games and of the second-round series against Toronto Carolina had home regular-season wins to tie the Los Angeles Kings for bulk in the league then went - in two playoff rounds Staying alive Carolina is - under Brind Amour when facing elimination That includes two wins last year after falling behind - against the New York Rangers in a six-game second-round series AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale Florida contributed to this analysis AP NHL playoffs https apnews com hub stanley-cup and https apnews com hub nhl Source
