Hurricanes beat at their own game by Panthers in Eastern Conference Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Honesty is the best medicine at a time like this for the Carolina Hurricanes.

They are a good team that lost to a better team.

There's no shame in that, no shame in losing to the Florida Panthers, again, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Hurricanes, like every other team in the Eastern Conference, aren't as good as the Panthers. It's the truth now and it has been for three seasons.

That's why the Panthers are going back to the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight season. That's why they still have a chance to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.

"They're the standard, obviously," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

The Panthers needed five games in the Eastern Conference Final to get through the Hurricanes, who played arguably their best game in the best-of-7 series in Game 5 at Lenovo Center and still lost 5-3 on Wednesday to lose the series 4-1.

It's the second time in three years Carolina has lost to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final. The Hurricanes were swept in 2023, losing all four games by one goal. At least they managed to pull out one win this time, but that's not really progress considering how the series went for them.

"That's a great hockey team," Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said. "I mean, one team has beat them (in a playoff series) the past three seasons. We knew it was going to be a big test to try to beat them and we truly believed that we had what it takes, but obviously fell short yet again."

They did because the Panthers are just better at playing the simple but aggressive and pressure-filled style of hockey that the Hurricanes have been playing for seven seasons under Brind'Amour.

The teams are not mirror images of one another, but they're alike in what they want to do and their success rate is dependent on that.

"I see out, in, forecheck hard, wait for your chance, try to capitalize," Brind'Amour said. "I mean, it's hard hockey. If anything, we need to figure out how to get that much (more) to our game, but that's the standard right there. I feel like that's been our game for a long time. They kind of picked it up the last couple of years and made it that much better. So, that's what we've got to get to."

They did, which will only fuel the regret the Hurricanes will carry into the offseason. They did get to their game. They did play better than the Panthers for long stretches of Games 4 and 5.

It was too late.

Games 1, 2 and 3 can't be erased. The Hurricanes were outscored 16-4, including 10-2 in Games 1 and 2 at home, where they were previously 5-0 in the playoffs.

"Essentially, we lost it in the first two games," center Jordan Staal said. "You can't start a series like that and expect a better outcome. You're hoping for it, but the first two games we were a little hesitant, kind of off."

The Hurricanes actually liked their performance in Game 1 even though it was a 5-2 loss. They weren't worried.

Then they lost Game 2, 5-0, and concern crept in.

"Honestly, I think Game 1 wasn't that bad," Aho said. "The score was bad, but I thought we came out early the way we wanted, but, whatever, that's hockey and that's why it's a seven-game series. Even if it doesn't go your way one game you need to bounce back better than Game 2. I think that was the worst game of the series. You don't want to live with regrets, but you'd like to see a better bounce back and split the series there and go off to Florida. Obviously, we were able to win one there, but then it's 2-2 instead of 3-1."

They had a chance in Game 3 to bounce back again, but their disastrous third period, five goals allowed, led to a 6-2 loss and a 3-0 hole in the series.

"When you're feeling like this you wish you could go back in time, but you can't," forward Seth Jarvis said. "You've got to sit on it for the whole summer."

The Hurricanes outscored the Panthers 6-5 in the last two games of the series, including a 3-0 win in Game 4. They had a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game 5 with the building rocking and hope building. But that wasn't enough either.

Florida scored three goals on consecutive shots in a span of 4:36 in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Jarvis responded to tie it at 8:30 of the third period, but Aleksander Barkov made an elite play to set up Carter Verhaeghe for the goal that stood as the game-winner at 12:21.

The Hurricanes had several chances to convert on a power play that started with three minutes to play, but they couldn't finish, and Sam Bennett scored an empty-net goal at 19:06 to seal it and send the Panthers into the Stanley Cup Final again.

"There's another level," Brind'Amour said. "We came off a real hard series, physical series (against the Washington Capitals), and then all of a sudden it went to another level and it took us time to adapt to it. I thought we did. I thought we were good. You just can't give these guys a 3-0 lead and expect to come back."

Ain't that the truth.