The Carolina Hurricanes' 2024-25 NHL season is over following their 5-3 loss at home to the reigning — and still defending — Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers on Wednesday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

Following a 3-0 Game 4 victory against Florida on Monday, the Hurricanes tried to further extend the series when they returned home for Game 5. It looked as though Carolina would do just that when Sebastian Aho put the Hurricanes on the board first with an unassisted goal in the opening period. Aho struck again just before the end of the first frame to make it 2-0 for Carolina.

But the second period turned out to be a disaster for Carolina, as the Panthers scored three consecutive goals. Matthew Tkachuk's power-play score gave Florida its first goal of the contest before Evan Rodrigues found the back of the net just 30 seconds later to tie the game up at 2-2. Anton Lundell gave the Panthers the 3-2 lead with a goal with eight minutes left in the second period.

Carolina leveled the score at 3-3 following a Seth Jarvis goal eight minutes into the final period, but Carter Verhaeghe scored what would turn out to be the game-winning goal for the Panthers in Game 5 nearly four minutes later. Sam Bennett added an insurance empty-netter score under a minute left in regulation, further silencing the stunned crowd at Carolina's home.

Carolina immediately posted the final score of Game 5 on social media, which generated strong reactions from Hurricanes fans.

“Oh well we didn’t get swept,” said a fan.

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“Well…just watched my last hockey game til October,” another one shared.

“Every year. Every single year,” a different post read.

“We choked,” simply said one fan.

Via another comment:”Choked but it’s okay. This roster was never supposed to win a cup and we all know that. Window is far from closed. Toughen up and do it again next year!”

“For a retooling year, I can't complain about getting to 9 wins, but this ending sucks, not watching this team play hockey until October sucks. At some point I'll appreciate the good memories from this season,” reflected a Hurricanes supporter.

The Hurricanes, which reached the Eastern Conference final twice in three seasons, went 47-30-5 in the regular season and defeated the New Jersey Devils and the Washington Capitals in the first and second round of the playoffs, respectively.