Evgeny Dadonov, Michael Frolik, and Bryan McCabe had goals, and Vokoun made 30 saves for Florida.
Carolina began its comeback in the second period. Skinner made a nifty move near the blue line by passing the puck between the legs of defenseman Mike Weaver, skated around him to regain the puck, and brought it into the Panthers’ zone. His shot was blocked by Vokoun, but Cole grabbed the rebound and put in a wrist shot at 14:39.
The Hurricanes closed to 3-2 at 7:02 of the third on McBain’s first goal of the season.
“It’s inexcusable to lose a lead like that. There’s no sugarcoating it,” Panthers coach Pete DeBoer said. “We didn’t get the right plays at the right times from our goaltender on out. We’ve got to find a way to fix it because those things don’t happen to good teams.”
The Panthers scored their first two goals less than two minutes into the game, chasing goalie Cam Ward from the game. The first came 29 seconds in when Shawn Matthias won a faceoff and pushed the puck out to Marty Reasoner, who fed the puck to Dadonov in front. It was the first NHL goal for the 21-year-old Dadonov and the fastest opening goal for the Panthers this season.