Panthers must 'execute faster' in 2nd chance to eliminate Hurricanes in Game 5 of East Final

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers missed on their first swing at knocking out the Carolina Hurricanes.

They don't want to do it again in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC). The alternative would be returning home for Game 6 on Friday with, suddenly, all the pressure on them.

Florida remains in firm control, leading 3-1 in the best-of-7 series and needing one more win to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season. A 3-0 loss in Game 4 on Monday served as a reminder, though, of what can happen when the Panthers take their foot off the gas just a little against an opponent facing elimination.

"I don't think we were at our best yesterday," Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said Tuesday. "I think they came out hard, they played well, they played stingy defensively and I don't think we made them uncomfortable enough. So we'll look to bounce back tomorrow and try to take it to them."

Some help could be on the way. Injured forwards Sam Reinhart (lower body) and A.J. Greer (undisclosed), and injured defenseman Niko Mikkola (undisclosed) all skated Tuesday with Florida's extra players. Coach Paul Maurice said he expects them to skate again Wednesday morning in Carolina before determining whether they'll play in Game 5.

Reinhart has missed the past two games, and Mikkola and Greer each missed one after being injured during the third period of Game 3. Regardless of if any of the three plays Wednesday, the Panthers will need to elevate their level of play to match the Hurricanes' desperation.

Including their Game 4 loss, the Panthers are 2-5 in their first attempt to close a Stanley Cup Playoff series the past two postseasons. The defending Stanley Cup champions usually are pretty good at learning their lessons quickly and finding the urgency necessary to finish teams fighting to extend their season.

The lone time Florida didn't win on its second try was in the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers last season, when it let a 3-0 series lead slip away before rebounding with a 2-1 victory in Game 7 and lifting the Cup for the first time.

The Panthers certainly don't want to play with that kind of fire again, so they'll need to be on their toes from the start in Game 5.

"I think anytime you're trying to close out or end a team's season, they're going to play desperate and we're going to get their best," Florida forward Carter Verhaeghe said. "It's always going to be a tight game. I feel like it's never really a one-sided kind of thing. But I think for us it's just kind of getting mentally prepared for their best and sometimes we haven't done a great job of that. I think last night was kind of a case in point.

"They played a really good game, but I think we've got better and got to stick to what we do."

The Panthers weren't able to do that in Game 4. They came out flat and never really found the level of intensity and execution that helped them outscore the Hurricanes 16-4 in the first three games.

Carolina finally got its first lead of the series when Logan Stankoven scored at 10:45 of the second period Monday. That was all the Hurricanes would need -- they added two empty-net-goals in the final 2:11 of the third period -- with the uncharacteristically passive Panthers managing only 20 shots on goal, including just two high-danger shots, according to NHL EDGE Stats.

And after the Panthers got by without Reinhart in a 6-2 victory in Game 3 on Saturday, his absence was more noticeable in Game 4, particularly on the power play. Florida went 0-for-4 with just four shots on goal with the man-advantage.

The Panthers also went 0-for-4 on the power play in Game 3 (after going 4-for-5 in the first two games), but that wasn't an issue because they scored six 5-on-5 goals. Scoring a power-play goal Monday could have made a difference in what essentially was a 1-0 game.

"We were a little slow on our feet and I think that kind of came into our offensive game as well," Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said. "We tried to look for more plays instead of shooting the puck right away and then they got sticks on and blocked a lot of shots. So I think we just have to execute faster."

Although Maurice said he "didn’t like" how Florida played Monday, he didn't think it necessarily was from not matching Carolina's desperation. He noted the Panthers won seven of their previous eight games.

So maybe it was the law of averages catching up to them against a Hurricanes team that got back to playing how it did in defeating the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

"They were better at their game than we were at our game last night," Maurice said. "We've managed to not have that happen very often. When we lose, we learn some pretty important things about the way we play or the adherence to the way we play. And sometimes what you learn is that the style of the other team means that you don't play your exact same game.

"You have the same will, the same systems and stuff, but your attitude with the puck and your mentality with the puck sometimes has to change."