Canes go back to Andersen with season on line

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- With their play connected the line, the Carolina Hurricanes are turning backmost to the goaltender who led them to the Eastern Conference finals.

Frederik Andersen volition commencement Game 4 connected Monday night, with the Florida Panthers looking to implicit a expanse of the Hurricanes. He was benched successful Game 3 successful favour of backup Pyotr Kochetkov, who played good earlier the Panthers blew the crippled unfastened with 5 goals successful the 3rd play for a 6-2 win.

Andersen was 7-2 with a .937 prevention percent and a 1.36 goals-against mean successful 9 playoff games earlier facing Florida. But against the Panthers, helium gave up 9 goals connected 36 shots (.750, 5.54) earlier getting pulled aft 2 periods successful Game 2 and sitting for Game 3. Andersen had fixed up conscionable 12 goals successful his erstwhile 9 postseason games earlier taking connected the Panthers.

"He's done large for america each year," Carolina manager Rod Brind'Amour said astir giving the 35-year-old goalie the Game 4 nod. "He had a bully mates of days off. So it makes sense."

One of Andersen's champion virtues is being capable to leap close backmost into enactment aft a being retired of the lineup, Brind'Amour said. "It's surely unsocial accomplishment set. We request it tonight, obviously," helium said.

The Panthers haven't conscionable beaten the Hurricanes connected the scoreboard -- they've routed them. Florida's plus-12 extremity differential is tied for the sixth highest done the archetypal 3 games of a best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series.

The cardinal for Carolina successful Game 4, according to winger Taylor Hall, is to support the people overmuch tighter.

"We're reasoning astir winning the crippled 1-0," helium said. "If it's close, past we're successful a bully spot. If we tin enactment unit connected them and origin turnovers and get a pb and pad that lead, great."

The Hurricanes person failed to people the archetypal extremity successful each crippled of the series, which has been critical. Carolina is 5-0 erstwhile scoring archetypal and 3-5 erstwhile it trails archetypal successful the playoffs. In the regular season, the Hurricanes were 30-7-2 erstwhile scoring archetypal and 17-23-3 erstwhile trailing first.

"Getting down has conscionable been a slayer for us. It feeds close into what they bash very, precise well," Brind'Amour said.

In trying to rally, the Hurricanes are bumping up against precedent. Only 4 teams successful the past of the Stanley Cup playoffs person rallied to triumph a best-of-seven bid aft trailing 3-0, though 2 person done it successful the past 15 years (Philadelphia Flyers successful 2010 and Los Angeles Kings successful 2014) and the Edmonton Oilers astir pulled disconnected the feat successful past year's Stanley Cup Final against the Panthers.

The Hurricanes are besides pushing against their ain history. Carolina's Game 3 nonaccomplishment was its 15th consecutive league finals defeat, dating backmost to 2009.

But the Hurricanes judge that the unit has shifted somewhat to Florida, and that determination are capable positives to excavation from their Game 3 nonaccomplishment to support the religion for Game 4.

"Whenever we've been up with a accidental to an destruct [an opponent], it's ever the hardest game. So that's what we're going to enactment forward. We person a batch of content successful our room, honestly," Hall said. "Every displacement is our season."