Panthers-Hurricanes Game 4 preview: Can Carolina avoid another sweep?

1 week ago 4

ESPN staffMay 26, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

Through the archetypal 2 rounds, the Carolina Hurricanes looked arsenic ascendant arsenic anyone, needing conscionable 10 games to dispatch the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals.

The Eastern Conference finals person been a antithetic story.

Carolina has tally into the Florida Panthers, who are showing everyone that they are superior astir defending the 2024 Stanley Cup title. Florida has won each 3 games by an aggregate people of 16-4.

Can the Canes propulsion disconnected a historical comeback from down 3-0, oregon are the Panthers headed to a 3rd consecutive Stanley Cup Final?

Here are matchup notes heading into Monday's Game 4 from ESPN Research, arsenic good arsenic betting intel from ESPN BET:

More connected Game 3: Recap | Grades

Matchup notes

Carolina Hurricanes astatine Florida Panthers
Game 4 | 8 p.m. ET | TNT

The Panthers, who are up 3-0 successful the series, are -5000 to win, portion the Hurricanes are +1500 to instrumentality the series, per ESPN BET; those numbers are adjusted from Florida -700 and Carolina +425 earlier Game 3. Florida is besides the favourite to triumph the Cup astatine -110, and Sergei Bobrovsky leads the Conn Smythe Trophy candidates astatine +200.

With six goals successful Game 3, Florida has scored astatine slightest 5 goals for 4 consecutive games, dating to Game 7 of the 2nd circular vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's the 4th lawsuit successful the past 30 years of a squad scoring five-plus goals successful 4 consecutive postseason games, joining the 1995 Detroit Red Wings, 2021 Colorado Avalanche and 2024 Avalanche.

Aleksander Barkov had 2 of the Panthers' 5 third-period goals, and besides added an assist, successful the win. It is his 20th vocation multipoint playoff game, breaking a necktie with teammate Carter Verhaeghe for the astir successful Panthers postseason history.

Also scoring 2 goals successful the triumph was defenseman Niko Mikkola, who had conscionable 3 goals successful 61 vocation playoff games entering Saturday. Mikkola's effort was conscionable the 4th multigoal playoff crippled by a defenseman successful Panthers history.

Evan Rodrigues had 2 assists successful Game 3, becoming the sixth subordinate successful NHL past to registry aggregate assists successful each of the archetypal 3 games of a league finals/Stanley Cup semifinals bid (and the archetypal since Al MacInnis successful 1986).

The Hurricanes person mislaid 15 consecutive league final-round games, extending their grounds for astir consecutive losses successful the circular earlier the Stanley Cup Final (either league last oregon semifinals) successful Stanley Cup playoffs history. Carolina's past triumph successful a league final-round crippled was June 1, 2006 (a 4-2 triumph implicit Buffalo successful Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals).

Logan Stankoven finished with a extremity and an assist, becoming the 3rd rookie successful Whalers/Hurricanes Stanley Cup playoffs past with 4 oregon much goals successful a playoff year, joining Erik Cole successful 2002 and Warren Foegele successful 2019.

Carolina indispensable effort to travel backmost from a 3-0 bid deficit, thing lone 4 teams successful Stanley Cup playoff past person accomplished successful a best-of-seven series: Los Angeles Kings implicit San Jose Sharks (2014 league quarterfinals), Philadelphia Flyers implicit Boston Bruins (2010 league semifinals), New York Islanders implicit Pittsburgh Penguins (1975 quarterfinals), Maple Leafs implicit Red Wings (1942 Stanley Cup Final).