Hurricanes HC Rod Brind'Amour vexed with officiating in elimination Game 6 vs Panthers

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour was visibly frustrated with the officiating in the Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday.

In the first period, at 8:31, Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin was called for roughing against Panthers forward Nate Schmidt for removing his helmet. Brind'Amour believed that it was a questionable call.

During an intermission interview with TNT reporter Jackie Redmond, Brind'Amour vented his frustration:

"These aren't real penalties. That's the way this series has gone. We gotta stop the hitting and go play. I'm a little bit frustrated as you can tell."

The Hurricanes found themselves in penalty trouble again later in the first period, at 11:21, with William Carrier receiving checking penalty and had to kill off the Panthers power play.

Carolina fought back to tie the game at 3-3 midway through the third period, thanks to goals from Sebastian Aho (two) and Seth Jarvis. But the Panthers took over down the stretch, scoring twice to put the game away, 5-3, and eliminate the Hurricanes.

Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell scored for Panthers. Frederik Andersen stopped 17 shots in the loss, while Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for Florida.

With the victory, the Panthers clinched the Eastern Conference crown and booked their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.

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Game 4: Carolina Hurricanes' 5-3 loss against Florida Panthers

Sebastian Aho got Carolina on the board early, capitalizing on a Panthers turnover in the neutral zone 4:39 into the first period. Aho struck again later in the first with a long-range wrister that slipped under Bobrovsky’s glove for his second goal.

Florida started with a power-play goal from Matthew Tkachuk at 7:23. Half a minute later, Evan Rodrigues found the back of the net off a slick feed from Seth Jarvis. Anton Lundell followed up with a redirect off a Brad Marchand pass, giving the Panthers a 3-2 lead.

Carolina pushed back in the third, tying the game when Seth Jarvis found a loose puck in front and snapped it past Bobrovsky — once again beating him glove-side — to make it 3-3 with over 11 minutes left.

However, Florida had the final word. Aleksander Barkov circled behind the net to pass to Carter Verhaeghe, who scored to make it 4-3, before Sam Bennett finished with an empty-netter for 5-3 win.