Florida has thrived in pressure-filled situations in the past, but this may be another animal entirely

The Florida Panthers made a valiant comeback attempt in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, but ultimately the Cats could not make it happen.

After falling behind by three goals, Florida draw within one on the Edmonton Oilers with most of the third period to spare, but the visitors clamped down and kept the host Panthers off the scoreboard long enough to skate away with a 5-3 victory.

Now Florida will pack their bags and head back to Edmonton for another opportunity to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup.

They’ll have a few things to stew over as they make the 2,541-mile trip from South Florida to Alberta, and that brings us to our Game 5 takeaways:

Discipline becoming an issue?

During the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final, Florida allowed the Oilers 10 power play opportunities. They killed off each one.

Between Game 4 and Game 5, however, the Panthers have granted Edmonton 11 power plays, allowing goals on three of them.

Between falling behind (we’ll get to that in a moment) and failing to stay out of the penalty box, Florida has been playing with fire against a team you do not want to give extra looks on the man advantage.

“We’ve got to find a way to stay out of the penalty box,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “We just got caught late. I think we can clean some of that up, keeping our energy a little higher and going a little shorter (with our shifts).”

Better start needed

Florida has been trailing after the first period in three of the past four Stanley Cup Final games.

In Game 4, they were down 3-1 after twenty minutes before eventually losing by seven.

On Tuesday in Game 5, Florida trailed 1-0 after one and five minutes into the middle frame the deficit ballooned to three.

Coming out of the gate stronger will be a point of emphasis for the Panthers in Game 6.

“Our push was good at the end, and our second and third were good, but we just need to be a little sharper in the first period,” said Panthers forward Sam Bennett. “Our start is going to be big. In the last couple games our start wasn’t good enough, so it’s going to be really important to get a good start.”

Panthers keeping perspective

When it comes to pressure, don’t expect the Panthers to discuss feeling much.

The group has made it their business to stay relaxed and loose in the toughest situations.

That will obviously be tested over the next several days as the Panthers enter into what should be the most challenging and pressure-filled of many of their lives.

“Absolutely nothing has changed for our situation in the last two games except we learned some things,” Maurice said. “Some lessons we don't need to learn, we've learned them enough, but we keep getting taught those lessons. Nothing's changed for us. Not one thing.”

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