Stanley Cup playoffs takeaways: Hurricanes advance, panic time for Maple Leafs

Dawson Mercer's double-minor for high-sticking ended up setting up that goal.

Carolina will now play the winner of the Washington Capitals-Montreal Canadiens series. 

Maple Leafs lose another potential closeout game

There is no way the Toronto Maple Leafs can do this again, right?

There is no way they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and humiliate themselves in another first-round series, is there?

With their 4-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night, they missed another opportunity to clinch a series and fell to 1-12 in potential closeout games since the start of the 2018 playoffs. 

That is astonishing. It almost defies all reason and logic. That is also how they have managed to win just a single series in that time. With Tuesday's loss they will get another chance in Game 6 on Thursday night in Ottawa, and the pressure is only going to keep building on them.

Because every game they lose, and every game they fail to clinch this series, the outside noise is going to keep getting louder and louder. 

By the end of Tuesday's game you could sense the panic from the fans in Toronto. The arena was silent. Fans were not even reacting to fights or skirmishes that were breaking out as time expired. There was just a sense of doom in the air and absolutely zero energy. It was almost as if the Maple Leafs had already lost the series instead of still being up 3-2 with two more chances to close it out. 

Aaron Ekblad gets suspended

The NHL got it wrong by not suspending Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk for his late hit on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel. 

It had no choice but to suspend defenseman Aaron Ekblad. 

After missing the boat with Tkachuk, the NHL corrected its mistake on Tuesday by suspending Ekblad for two games for delivering a forearm directly to the face of Lightning forward Brandon Hagel on Monday night. There was no penalty called on the play, but there was no way the NHL could ignore this.

Ekblad is one of the Panthers' top players and defenseman, and his absence could open the door for the Lightning to get back in the series. Florida has a chance to win the series in Game 5 on Wednesday.