For the 2nd straight year, Hurricanes left to lament falling in huge series hole in NHL playoff exit

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — For the second straight year, the Carolina Hurricanes failed to win a game in their last postseason series until on the edge of elimination.

This time, it ended their season in another Eastern Conference final — the stage proving to be a roadblock in their multiyear Stanley Cup push.

The Hurricanes fell 5-3 to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in Game 5, sending the Panthers back to the sport's final stage for the third straight year while ending Carolina's latest lengthy playoff grind short of the ultimate goal.

And it ended in a similar fashion to the previous year: with Carolina losing the first three games of a series, spending multiple games trying to dig out of that massive hole and then losing a two-goal lead at home in the game that ultimately ended their season.

“I think essentially we lost in the first few games,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “You can’t start a series like that and expect a better outcome.”

A year ago, it was an 0-3 series deficit to the Presidents' Trophy-winning New York Rangers in the second round. The Hurricanes regrouped to win two elimination games and carried a 3-1 lead into the third period of a Game 6 at home, only to see the Rangers surge back behind Chris Kreider's hat trick in the final 20 minutes in a 5-3 victory.

This time, it was an 0-3 series deficit to the the reigning Stanley Cup champion, a tested and deep team unafraid to play and surpass Carolina's aggressive-forechecking approach. And it ended with a matching final score.

“We knew it was going to be a big task to try to beat them,” said Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, who had two first-period goals Wednesday that put the Hurricanes ahead. “We truly believe we have what it takes, but obviously we fell short yet again."

By the final horn, Carolina's lamentations went back to losing the first two games at home, the second being a 5-0 blowout in which the Panthers were shockingly dominant and the Hurricanes' normally rowdy fans were left to frustratedly chant “Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!”

“Those first two games you’d probably want back, but it’s too little, too late,” said Seth Jarvis, who had a tying goal midway through the third period before Florida made its go-ahead move on Carter Verhaeghe's score. “And that's kind of the result of it.”

By Game 3, Carolina had seen a 1-1 game entering the third mushroom into a 6-2 loss for their 15th straight loss in a conference final going back to sweeps in 2009, 2019 and the 2023 one against these Panthers. The Hurricanes regrouped to win Game 4 on the road and avert another sweep, but they faced a long climb to accomplish the improbable.

Carolina jumped to a 2-0 lead with Aho twice putting Panthers giveaways in the neutral zone into the net behind Sergei Bobrovsky. But the Panthers flurry of three goals on consecutive second-period shots — two coming in a 30-second span — erased that deficit and silenced a roaring crowd giddy by Carolina's start.

While the Hurricanes responded with Seth Jarvis' tying goal midway through the third, the dynamic of the game had completely changed after a flurry coach Rod Brind'Amour called “a backbreaker.”

“You could just feel us — it's just natural, the building, everything, it kind of sucked a little bit of life out of us,” he said.

Carolina's five-week playoff push had included five-game series wins against the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals, the latter being this year's top seed in the Eastern Conference. Yet the Hurricanes went from going 5-0 at home in those two series to losing all three home games against the Panthers.

Carolina has won at least one postseason series in its current run of seven straight playoff appearances, though three have now ended in the Eastern final.

“We've had slow starts in the series, when it gets to the top four teams, they're great teams, and having a slow start is never great,” Staal said.

“Obviously we always believe in the group when we get here and coming up short is never easy, and it doesn't get any easier. We'll just try to get better and try again.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour yells at an official during the first period of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals against the Florida Panthers in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) scores against Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) and center Sebastian Aho (20) while Floridan Panthers' Jonah Gadjovich (12) looks on during the second period in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Carolina Hurricanes center Seth Jarvis, center, celebrates his goal with right wing Andrei Svechnikov (37) and defenseman Dmitry Orlov, right, after he scored against the Florida Panthers during the third period of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho (20) reacts following the Hurricanes loss to the Florida Panthers following Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Shreyas Iyer was provisionally named in India’s squad on Saturday for the home one-day international series against New Zealand starting Jan. 11.

India will host the Black Caps in a white-ball engagement — three ODIs and five T20s — in the build-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Iyer returns to the international fold after sustaining a spleen injury during an ODI against Australia in Sydney last October.

His selection is subject to fitness clearance from BCCI’s medical team and he will return as India’s vice-captain for the three-match series.

Skipper Shubman Gill also returns, after he missed the ODI series against South Africa in December. He had a neck spasm in the test series earlier, and subsequently played in the T20s against the Proteas.

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Verma missed out. Gaikwad had scored a maiden ODI hundred against South Africa in Visakhapatnam.

Rishabh Pant is retained as second keeper-batter behind Lokesh Rahul, who had stood in as captain against the Proteas.

Star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had both participated in the domestic List A tournament — Vijay Hazare Trophy — and return to the international stage for the ODIs.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya is fit, but not sufficiently enough to bowl 10 overs in an ODI. Thus, he has been rested further ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup (in India and Sri Lanka) starting Feb. 7. Nitish Kumar Reddy is included in the squad.

Pacer Mohammed Siraj returns to lead the bowling lineup with Jasprit Bumrah rested again. Siraj had missed the South Africa series because of workload management.

The three ODIs will be played in Vadodara (Jan. 11), Rajkot (Jan. 14) and Indore (Jan. 18), with the five-match T20 series starting Jan. 21.

Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

FILE - Captain of Punjab Kings Shreyas Iyer addresses a news conference on the eve of the final match of Indian Premier League at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)