Hurricanes play steady game, shut out Panthers in Game 4

SUNRISE, Fla. -- On Sunday, Taylor Hall had this to say about the Carolina Hurricanes mindset going into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.

"We're thinking about winning the game 1-0."

They just about did it, albeit with an additional two empty-net goals, to keep their season alive and finally end a 16-year, 15-game losing streak in the Eastern Conference Final.

Logan Stankoven's goal at 10:45 of the second period gave Carolina its first lead in the series. It stayed as the difference-maker after Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal tacked on the 5-on-6 goals.

Frederik Andersen made 20 saves and Carolina won 3-0 against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday. It's their first win in the conference final since June 1, 2006, when Rod Brind'Amour scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 against the Buffalo Sabres.

"It's nice to not have to talk about that," said Brind'Amour, the Hurricanes coach.

The Panthers, who had won seven straight conference final games against Carolina, still lead the best-of-7 series 3-1, but the Hurricanes married the belief they maintained even down 3-0 in the series with hope that comes out of finally getting a win in the conference final.

They're going to find out how powerful that combination can be.

"I thought we were good all night," Brind'Amour said. "It was how we need to play if we're going to have a chance, and we still have a chance."

The Hurricanes played their way for the better part of the 60 minutes.

They pressured. They had the puck more. They got better as the game went along. When they needed it, their penalty kill was excellent, going 4-for-4 with four shots on goal against.

They outshot the Panthers 28-20, including 23-12 in the first 40 minutes. They limited their turnovers, which was a huge problem in Games 1-3. When they did, they got back and defended well. They blocked 15 shots, four by defenseman Jaccob Slavin.

"It was definitely more our game," Staal said. "I don't know exactly what it was beyond we just did it. I mean, I don't know. I think the boys truly bought into how we play and what we want to do. We got some good bounces, some big saves by Freddie early, kept the momentum out of their hands and we just stuck with it. We talked about staying with it, being patient with that game. They do a great job with that too and tonight we did it better."

Andersen, reinserted as the starting goalie after ceding that position to Pyotr Kochetkov for Game 3, made seven saves in the first period, five in the second and eight more in the third for his 20-save shutout.

He allowed nine goals on 36 shots in the first five periods of the series.

"There was some real tough shots that looked easy tonight, and that's how you know that he's on," Brind'Amour said.

The biggest play of the night came from a couple of Carolina rookies, which, if you watched the first three games, shouldn't be all that surprising.

It was after Game 3 when Brind'Amour said the Hurricanes best players can't be their four rookies, but they won't complain if Stankoven and defenseman Alexander Nikishin are going to keep making plays the way did to get Carolina its first lead of the series.

The Panthers had all five of their skaters on the bench side of the ice. Stankoven was alone on the weak side calling for the puck. Nikishin doesn't speak much English, but he must have heard Stankoven screaming.

He made a backhand pass with his back turned that went right onto the forward's tape. Stankoven did the rest, using the space he had to skate into the left face-off circle before roofing a shot over Sergei Bobrovsky's blocker.

"The play happened so fast," Stankoven said. "It was a great feed by [Nikishin] to make that play off the turnover. It all starts with him."

The Hurricanes, finally playing with the lead, kept the pressure on, and they also finally got a break. Nate Schmidt had a shot from the left point ring off the left post just 58 seconds after Stankoven's goal.

Andersen made arguably his biggest save at 2:36 of the third period on a hard wrist shot by defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who got the puck coming out of the penalty box and chose to shoot on a 2-on-1 with forward Carter Verhaeghe.

"I thought he dazzled," Staal said. "I remember a couple went by me and I was like 'Oh no,' and he made some great saves."

Mark Jankowski had a would-be goal negated by a successful coach's challenge for offside at 6:31 of the third period. But the Hurricanes didn't seem bothered by that. Aho said it helped that they had the lead at that point.

"I thought that could have been another moment where we kind of shelled up, but the boys kept with it," Staal said. "That was our steadiest game of staying with it and playing the way we want to and it paid off in the end."

Game 5 is Wednesday at Lenovo Center (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS). It's another chance to try to win a 1-0 game. At least now they have some proof of concept against the Panthers. At least now they know they can beat this team.

"This effort," Aho said, "we showed them, but for sure ourselves, if we keep playing like that we're going to give ourselves a chance to win any given day in this League."