Florida’s dreadful power play helps Carolina Hurricanes beat Panthers

The power play — scoring on it and defending against it — was the key to victory in the Carolina Hurricanes’ first five wins against the Panthers this season.

History, at least when it comes to special teams, sometimes repeats itself.

It certainly did Thursday night.

Carolina’s penalty kill, for the most part, completely dumbfounded the Panthers Thursday as Florida looked inept at times while skating with the man advantage.

The Panthers went 1-for-9 on the power play Thursday night (only scoring while with a two-man advantage) all while Carolina scored not only on one of its power plays but on two of Florida’s as well.

Key to Carolina’s 4-2 win Thursday?

Look no further than the Panthers lack of success on the power play.

Sasha Barkov scoring with 7:58 left with the Panthers holding the 5-on-3 advantage at least made things appear a little better.

But not much.

”I knew you would be asking the same questions as the (first) seven other games,” Barkov said. “Same type of games, all of them. Same finish. It’s a tight game and they end up winning. They find a way to win those games.”