For a brief moment, it looked like maybe the Hurricanes were going to prolong the agony, but then Florida said "Haha, no." And the Abbotsford Canucks host the Texas Stars in Game One of the AHL Western Conference Finals tonight. Oh yeah, Edmonton and Dallas play as well, I guess.

LAST NIGHT'S ACTION

FLORIDA PANTHERS 5 CAROLINA HURRICANES 3 (Panthers win series 4-1)

Last year, after bowing out to the Panthers in four games, Hurricanes coach Rob Brind'Amour claimed that they didn't actually get swept, because it didn't feel like it. So was he going to assert that they didn't lose this series because they won a game this time? No, but he did pull out another all time WTF'er.

He wasn't sure? You were probably the only one, even if that's true. Like, try and push the underdog narrative before the series starts, maybe? The Hurricanes are hardly some scrappy bunch who, against all odds, managed to get to the third round. Seriously embarrassing stuff. Anyway, Florida punches their ticket to defend their crown, and tonight may not tell us who they'll face, but it will tell us when Game One will be. If the Oilers win tonight, it's in Edmonton on June 4th. If Dallas wins tonight, it will be in the winner of Game Seven on June 7th, which will be on May 31st, meaning a whole week of no games before the series resumes, which seems like it will do little to help sagging American ratings.

TONIGHT'S ACTION

EDMONTON OILERS (3-1) vs DALLAS STARS (1-3)

AMERICAN AIRLINES ARENA, DALLAS, TX

5:00 PM PST/ 8:00 PM EST

TV: SPORTSNET, CBC

Can the Edmonton Oilers match the Panthers and secure the rematch for the Cup in just five games? Can Stuart Skinner continue this ridiculous run? Dallas is up against it, and will need to do it in seven if they hope to keep their Cup dreams alive. And the Oilers really don't want to take the chance of this going seven games, given Dallas coach Pete De Boer's record in game sevens.

The Oilers were dealt a blow as they lost Zach Hyman for the rest of the playoffs. Hyman suffered an upper body injury in Game Four, and had surgery to repair it. But because they always seem to get the bounces, they'll get Mattias Ekholm back on defence tonight. Ekholm had been on the injured list since April 11th.

OILERS (3P) at STARS (2C)

Western Conference Final, Game 5

8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC

Edmonton leads best-of-7 series 3-1

Oilers projected lineup

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Corey Perry

Evander Kane -- Leon Draisaitl -- Kasperi Kapanen

Jeff Skinner -- Adam Henrique -- Trent Frederic

Vasily Podkolzin -- Mattias Janmark -- Viktor Arvidsson

Mattias Ekholm -- Evan Bouchard

Darnell Nurse -- Brett Kulak

Jake Walman -- John Klingberg

Stuart Skinner

Calvin Pickard

Scratched: Joshua Brown, Cam Dineen, Ty Emberson, Max Jones, Derek Ryan, Troy Stecher

Injured: Connor Brown (undisclosed), Zach Hyman (upper body)

Stars projected lineup

Mikael Granlund -- Roope Hintz -- Mikko Rantanen

Mason Marchment -- Matt Duchene -- Tyler Seguin

Jamie Benn -- Wyatt Johnston -- Jason Robertson

Oskar Back -- Sam Steel -- Colin Blackwell

Esa Lindell -- Miro Heiskanen

Thomas Harley -- Cody Ceci

Lian Bichsel -- Alexander Petrovic

Jake Oettinger

Casey DeSmith

Scratched: Oskar Back, Mavrik Bourque, Mathew Dumba, Ilya Lyubushkin, Brendan Smith

Injured: Nils Lundkvist (shoulder)

ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS vs TEXAS STARS

ABBOTSFORD CENTRE, ABBOTSFORD, BC

7:00 PDT/ 10:00 EDT

RADIO: SPORTSNET 650 TV: FLOHOCKEY.TV

The Canucks are now just four wins away from their first berth in an AHL final in franchise history, and the first appearance for a Canucks farm team since the Utica Comets made the finals against the Manchester Monarchs in 2015. They will take on Dallas' affiliate, who have three of the top scorers so far in the AHL playoffs, one of them a former Canuck. Kole Lind has put up 6-5-11 for the Stars, and the Canucks will need to shut him and the rest of the Stars high powered offense down.

The Canucks have been led by Sammy Blais (3-8-11), Linus Karlsson (7-3-10) and Phil Di Giuseppe (5-3-8), but will need Blais to keep his composure, having been ejected from the last two games against the Colorado Eagles. The Canucks hope they can continue to get more stellar performances from Arturs Silovs, who has four shutouts so far in the playoffs, three of them coming in the series clinching games for the Canucks. The first two games will be in Abbotsford, followed by three in Texas, with the final two, if necessary, back in Abbotsford. If they should emerge victorious, they'll face either the Charlotte Checkers (Carolina) or Laval Rocket (Montreal). Charlotte leads that series 1-0, with Game Two going tonight.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

A little Twisted Sister for ya today. Here's 'Burn In Hell' featuring the late, great Paul Reubens as Pee Wee Herman from the classic 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure'.