They say the fourth win in a best-of-seven series is the most difficult to obtain.
It would seem the Florida Panthers can attest to that adage.
Florida had an opportunity to sweep the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night when they hosted Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.
All the momentum appeared to be in the Panthers’ favor. Not only had they just won three straight against Carolina, including two in the Canes home barn, but Florida had done so by a combined score of 16-4.
But alas, the fightin’ Hurricanes showed up in Sunrise with their best effort of the series and came away with a resounding 3-0 victory.
“They had their best game of the series,” said Panthers Captain Sasha Barkov. “They deserved to win. It’s okay. We’ll learn, we’ll recover from this and we’ll move on.”
Under Paul Maurice, Florida has played 11 playoff series. They have taken a 3-0 lead in five of them.
While the Panthers have won every one of those series, they were only able to complete the four-game sweep once: the 2023 conference final against Carolina.
We all remember what happened during last season’s Stanley Cup Final, when Florida went up 3-0 only to see the series get pushed all the way to a deciding seventh game.
The other two times the Panthers opened a series with three consecutive wins were the second round in 2023 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the 2024 first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In both of those instances, Florida dropped Game 4 but turned right back around and closed out each series in five games.
It’s that bounce-back mindset that has helped the Panthers avoid any extended periods of losing, whether it’s the regular season or the playoffs.
“It’s not frustrating, that’s hockey,” said Panthers forward Sam Bennet. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes you get bounces, sometimes you don’t. (In Game 4) we didn’t get many bounces, but we also didn’t play our best, so I don’t think we deserved the bounces.”
Florida will board a plane to Raleigh on Tuesday and prepare for their second opportunity to close out the series.
The Panthers surely enjoyed their first visits to Lenovo center, winning Games 1 and 2 handily.
They will likely draw more from those two victories than from Monday’s loss, but this is a veteran team that will be expected Carolina’s best once again.
Perhaps this time they’ll be better prepared to push back.
“We sat back, that's not the norm for us,” said Bennett. “I'm sure it's a pretty easy fix to turn that around.”
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Photo caption: May 26, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) moves the puck during the third period against the Carolina Hurricanes in game four of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images