It was a fun ride, but the 2024-25 Carolina Hurricanes season has come to an end after a 5-3 loss in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Despite holding a multi-goal lead after the opening frame, a short four minute and 36 second window offered just enough time for the Florida Panthers to storm back and take the lead and eventually the series.
Carolina managed to tie it back up again in the third period even after that initial falter, but Florida's overall talent edge proved too much as Aleksander Barkov single-handedly set up the eventual game-winning back-breaker late in the third period.
At the end of the day, this team exceeded expectations and made the franchise's deepest run since 2006. They fought back from a 3-0 deficit, won a do-or-die Game 4 and still showed a lot of grit in Game 5 when they could have easily packed it in after the initial collapse.
"Our guys battled really hard all series," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour.
"It's a hard working group," said Sebastian Aho. "As a teammate, you appreciate that every single one of your teammates come in and put the work boots on. That's kind of what we've been leaning on the whole year and maybe past years as well. So that's never a question with this group. That's something I'm proud of."
But that's all talk for another day.
Today, it's about the loss.
Because it's understandable for fans to feel frustrated given how this final game, and series, was lost.
'We Didn't Get Near Where We Planned On': Rod Brind'Amour, Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis On Game 5 Loss, EliminationThe Carolina Hurricanes fell 5-3 to the Florida Panthers Wednesday night in Game 5 at Lenovo Center to cap off their 2024-25 season.
Much like the first three games, it was the avoidable, self-inflicted mistakes that cost them in the end.
"I think we essentially lost in the first few games," said Jordan Staal. "You can't start a series like that and expect a better outcome. You hope for it obviously, but the first few games, we were a little hesitant and a little off a little bit. Obviously the group as a whole battled hard the last three games and played some good hockey though."
In this final one, it was Jesperi Kotkaniemi's ill-timed penalty in the second period that turned the game.
The Hurricanes were leading 2-0 thanks to a pair of Sebastian Aho goals off of two Florida neutral-zone turnovers
After a failed power play (we'll come back to that in a bit), the Finnish center got way too aggressive and hauled down Evan Rodrigues in the offensive zone, giving the Panthers' their third power play of the night.
The Canes' penalty kill had gotten back to its roots after two games of disaster and was looking strong in this game too, but you can only play with fire so many times before you get burned.
And Carolina certainly got burned as a Matthew Tkachuk redirect put Florida on the board.
The Hurricanes were still ahead, but there was blood in the water, and the Panthers tasted it.
Just 30 seconds later, Rodrigues and Sam Bennett connected on a give-and-go to tie the game and then Anton Lundell redirected another off of a faceoff play to give the Panthers the lead.
"The way the game was going, I thought we couldn't do much better," Brind'Amour said. "And then we take an o-zone penalty and they score on that. A little floater, a nice tip and then all of a sudden, it just kind of got them going. Then a couple little errors that we made on coverage. Gave them a little room and they put them in the net.
"It was a back breaker I think when they got that little run and then got another one. You could just feel us... it's natural. The building, everything. Kind of sucked a little bit of life out of us."
The collapse started with Kotkaniemi's penalty, but it also doesn't get there without the power play's failure.
The man advantage had been fine this postseason too. It was way better than in season's past, but it's the inability to get that critical, timely goal that feels so similar.
The Canes had the chance to go up 3-0 on a power play and couldn't.
Then there was a chance to tie it back up twice toward the end of the second period and yet again at the end of the third period, but once again, it came up short.
"We definitely had enough looks," Aho said. "So yeah, it's tough. Would like to see a power play goal tonight there. They got one and we didn't get any. It wasn't... again, I don't think it was bad effort but it doesn't matter at this time of year what the effort is. The score matters. Obviously they won the game."
It's those failures to capitalize at key moments that have haunted the Hurricanes for years and this one is no different.
"That was the killer," Brind'Amour said. "The first one was great, we had a couple good looks, Blaker was all alone in front. Even the last ones, Svech is right there. Those have to find a way to get in the net. That's definitely... when you look back on this game, that'll be a couple of lost moments for sure, but... it's done now.
Maybe one year the Hurricanes will figure it out, but it isn't this one.
While many have said that this group overachieved, the players don't for a second feel like that.
The players in that room believed and so this loss hits them especially hard.
"We didn't get near where we planned on," said Seth Jarvis. "Our goal is always to be the last team standing no matter who we have on the ice. We had that confidence in ourselves all year. That's why it sucks. It's the hardest trophy to win and when you're feeling like this, you just wish you could go back in time, but you can't. You just have to sit on it for the whole summer.
Most of all, you could see all of that emotion in Sebastian Aho as he talked with the media after the game. His frustration, his anger, his disappointment. And you could just tell how much the loss was eating at him.
"To me, you either win or lose a series,' Aho said. "It doesn't feel like right now... what's it matter? If you lose in four or seven, whatever. You lose the series, right? Like I said before, you're proud that the guys showed up to work and never quit. That's a great thing, but at the end of the day, we weren't able to push through. Obviously it's a great hockey team. Only one team has beat them in the past three seasons, right? We knew it was going to be a big task to try and beat him and we truly believed we had what it takes. But obviously we fell short yet again. Just really pissed off."
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