The Carolina Hurricanes played a good, tight hockey game for two periods as the score was 1-1 to start the third, but then they fell apart again later in that final period to lose to the Panthers, 6-2 on Saturday night in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Both Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker sat out this game with injuries. Alexander Nikishin and Scott Morrow filled in.
Nikishin played well for the most part but was paired with Dmitri Orlov, who might have played his all-time worst game.
After falling behind 1-0, the Canes tied things up on a Logan Stankoven powerplay goal when he put back a rebound shot midway through the second.
Stankoven almost scored earlier, but Bobrovsky made a nice save to stop him.
One minute and change into the third, the Panthers scored to take the lead again and then the next thing you know, they connected for five goals and jumped ahead, 6-1.
Seth Jarvis closed out the scoring later in the third.
The Panthers outhit the Canes 60-44 and they did not drop off their intensity after taking a big lead.
Brind’Amour said after the game that Staal and Martinook cannot be their best players every game.
Team Captain, Jordan Staal has 1 goal and 1 assist these entire playoffs. Martinook is slightly better with 1 goal and 5 assists in his 13 playoff games. If you need to consistently rely on these guys to win you a game, you probably are in bad shape.
I am not going to get into any analysis or talk about the team being “too soft” yet until after the season is over, but many in the mainstream media are jumping on this team, hard.
Post game reports and interviews are next.
Game Summary - https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20242025/GS030313.HTM
Event Summary - https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20242025/ES030313.HTM
Team Recap - https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/recap-canes-crumble-late-drop-game-3
Interviews - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/duyoonq50wyjtnl3a386o/ACeq_wXrz6ZRuOKccUJ5GEk/Postgame?rlkey=t2yjhfcz7h79685y6sopc4ike&subfolder_nav_tracking=1&st=hu3jafym&dl=0
The Canes will not practice Sunday but will have some media availability.