Panthers look to clinch trip to Stanley Cup Final

Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour spent some time Tuesday shaking his head. The occasional shoulder shrug was thrown in there, too. He knows all the questions, and there are few answers.

Here's what befuddles him right now: There isn't much to fix regarding the way the Hurricanes are playing against the Florida Panthers. The offense is generating chances. The defense is giving up almost nothing.

And they're down 3-0 to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals anyway.

The Panthers can wrap up their first trip to the Stanley Cup final in 27 years tonight when they host the Hurricanes in Game 4.

Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has been almost immaculate, stopping 132 of 135 shots in the series — hence, Brind'Amour spending his days wondering what the Hurricanes have to do to get one past that guy.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice freely acknowledges that he's no goaltending genius. He says hello to his goalies and that's about it, other than trying to read some body language from time to time. But he had this highly technical assessment of Bobrovsky right now, after going 10-1 in his last 11 games. The run started with Florida rallying from down 3-1 in Round 1 against a Boston team that was coming off posting the NHL's best regular season record ever.

“Really, really good,” Maurice said.

FLAMES PROMOTE CONROY TO GM >> The Calgary Flames have promoted Craig Conroy to general manager. Calgary made the move Tuesday, giving one of its former players his first opportunity lead an NHL front office after he had nine seasons of experience with the franchise as its assistant general manager.