‘This Is as Good as It Gets’: Panthers Prepared To Play Their Game in Potential ECF Finale

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Panthers are well aware they strayed away from their brand of hockey in Game 4.

On Monday in Sunrise, the Carolina Hurricanes came out with their best performance of the series to finally get a win on the board against Florida.

After failing to sweep the Hurricanes on home ice, the Panthers look to get back to their game and play spoiler to claim their third straight Prince of Wales Trophy on Wednesday night in Raleigh.

“We always have a ton of belief,” Matthew Tkachuk said ahead of Game 5. “It’s our preparation that allows us to have that belief, but we got to go out there and execute it tonight. We got to get back to our game. We have to be physical, we have to be fast. We can’t be looking to break anything open. We’ll earn our opportunities when they’re there, but just be hard.”

He added: “We always prepare for that seventh game, we’ve said it for years. So tonight’s no different but there’s a little extra energy in here tonight — coming on the road with a chance to win a conference championship. This is as good as it gets, so we’re really excited.”

The Panthers are no strangers to closing teams out away from home. This postseason alone they sent the Lightning (Game 5) and Leafs (Game 7) into an early vacation as the road team.

Florida will try to be the villains again — if they haven’t already established themselves as that around the league — on Wednesday night in North Carolina. Up 3-1 in the series and a chance to make a third consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers aren’t going to let their mindset waver despite the circumstance.

“Well, fighting to not have your mentality shift is the key piece,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said when asked if there’s a mentality shift when holding a 3-1 lead. “So to cement an idea, make it part of your identity, you have to have success and your failures in that. In each of the three series prior we [had] blocks of games that we really liked where we’re at, and then you have a setback, because the other team gets paid too. And then the further out you go, you know they’re pretty good teams. So a loss isn’t a failure.”

“If you lose a game there’s a reason for it, and being able to identify the reason — hopefully it’s not something that you haven’t seen before… The mentality of a seven game series, it relates to our style of play. It really relates to handling every day.”

A win would make Florida just the ninth franchise in NHL history to reach the Stanley Cup Final in three or more consecutive seasons.

The lessons learned from their lackluster performance in Game 4 has the team ready to return to Panthers hockey in Wednesday’s potential Conference Finals clincher.

“I think it’s just getting back to our game,” Jonah Gadjovich said about what the team needs to do in Game 5. “You know, having fun with it, enjoying coming to the rink and just enjoying this opportunity that we have in front of us.”