For the Carolina Hurricanes, life in the bubble could soon be coming to an end.
The Canes lost a two-goal lead in the third period and then lost Game 4 on Monday 4-3 to the Boston Bruins, falling behind 3-1 in the Stanley Cup playoff first-round series.
Unless the Canes can find a way to win Game 5 on Wednesday, their Return to Play postseason in Toronto will be over. And that could be a big ask given how well and strong the Bruins have played and with the Canes now without injured forward Andrei Svechnikov and with center Jordan Staal leaving Monday's game with an injury.
For two periods Monday, the Canes were playing their kind of aggressive game. Justin Williams scored his first postseason goal and Jordan Martinook, moved on the top line, scored off the rush in the second for a 2-0 lead.
But for the Canes, it all came undone in the third. Goalie James Reimer, sharp the first two periods, came out of net to challenge the Bruins' Jake DeBrusk as he bolted down the ice. The move was too bold, DeBrusk scored and the Bruins soon had control.
Defenseman Connor Clifton scored on a shot from the right circle. Brad Marchand scored on a breakaway. DeBrusk scored again and the Bruins had a 4-2 lead.
The Canes, with an extra attacker, got a goal from Teuvo Teravainen with 1:27 left in regulation to pull the Canes within a goal but the Bruins held on. Carolina had just two shots in the third as the Bruins dominated play.
Williams' first goal of the postseason, midway through the first period, came on the Canes' first shot on net and handed the Canes a 1-0 lead.
Martinook then scored off the rush in the second period, taking a pass from Sebastian Aho and sniping a shot from the left wing past goalie Jaroslav Halak.
That came moments after the Canes, with some gritty play, had denied Boston on a power play in which the Bruins were in the Carolina zone nearly the enitire two minutes.
Martinook nearly scored again late in the second but was called a high stick as he redircted a Dougie Hamilton shot past Halak. He had another good chance off the rush in the third.
Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour, sticking to his plan to alternate goalies, gave Reimer the start Monday. Reimer was the winner in Game 2 and had won his other postseason start, finishing off the sweep of the New York Rangers in the qualifying round.
Svechnikov was at the game and shown on the Fox Sports Carolinas broadcast sitting in the stands with a boot on his right foot. Brind'Amour, in the Fox pregame show, said the injury wasn't as severe as first feared and that the Canes might have dodged one.
The Bruins again played without winger David Pastrnak, the 48-goal scorer in the regular season who was injured in Game 1 and has missed the past three games. It was the second straight start for Halak after goalie Tuukka Rask opted out of the postseason Saturday to rejoin his family.
With Svechnikov out, Brind'Amour said he spent a mostly sleepless night Sunday mulling over possible line combinations.
He decided to start Jordan Martinook on the top line with Aho and Teravainen, and split up Williams and center Jordan Staal, putting Williams on Vincent Trocheck's line with Ryan Dzingel.
Dzingel was a healthy scratch in Game 3 and Brind'Amour said he had a "big opportunity" after rejoining the lineup. That showed up on the WIlliams goal, when Dzingel went to the front of the net to tie up defenseman Torey Krug in front of Halak.
After the Canes won a puck battle on the boards, Williams' shot from the top of the left circle _ with defenseman Jake Gardiner leaping out the way _ beat Halak to the glove side. That energized the bench and eased the Canes' tension level with the lead.
Brind'Amour also changed up his defense. The loss of Joel Edmundson to an injury in Game 1, he said, has been generally overlooked but took one of the Canes' top four D-men, and an important penalty killer, out of the lineup.
Gardiner was in and Trevor van Riemsdyk out Monday, paired with Haydn Fleury.
