Fans exit the Lenovo Center midway through the third period of the Hurricanes’ 5-2 loss to Florida on Tuesday in Raleigh. (Karl DeBlaker / AP Photo)

RALEIGH — The Hurricanes had a chance to shake off back-to-back losses in which they blew three-goal leads, entering the third period with a two-goal cushion on the visiting Panthers.

Instead, it was more of the same.

Florida scored five unanswered goals in the third period to turn  a two-goal deficit into a 5-2 win Tuesday at Lenovo Center.

“There’s got to be more confidence in the third to bury teams and just play the way we do,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said after the loss.

The Hurricanes were in position to head into the brief Christmas break with a bit of redemption.

Florida had scored three goals in the final 10 minutes on Friday in Sunrise to erase a 3-0 lead before winning in the shootout. Seth Jarvis and Jaccob Slavin were both injured in the loss to the Panthers, further stinging the Hurricanes. The wound was ripped back open the following night when the Lightning rallied from three down to beat Carolina in Tampa.

Collapse was in the cards again Tuesday at home.

After Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen (17 saves) made a dazzling save to keep the Panthers off the board, Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola’s point shot on the same shift hit Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin’s skate and went in at 3:53 to halve the Hurricanes’ lead at 2-1.

From there, Carolina unraveled.

In just over a six-minute stretch, the Panthers scored four times to flip a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead, and the fingerprints of the Hurricanes’ mistakes were all over the collapse.

Nikishin took himself out of position chasing a hit on one goal. Jackson Blake twice turned the puck over at the Carolina blue line, allowing Florida to stay in the zone and score. And the Hurricanes, who had limited the Panthers to eight shots in the first 40 minutes, were outshot 14-3 in the third as Florida scored five times to hand Carolina its third straight loss.

“There’s a lot of plays in hockey I wish I could go back and change, but I can’t do that,” Blake said after the game. “And, obviously, I take accountability for those mistakes. I mean, got to move on, right? It sucks that we lost. It sucks that we gave up that lead. … It’s a terrible feeling for me right now, but like I said, I’ve got to move on.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour pointed to “young mistakes” for the team’s recent struggles, saying injuries have forced inexperienced players up the lineup and into situations they’re not yet prepared to handle.

“We made a few errors,” he said. “I think young, I call them young mistakes — guys that are out there playing a little above where they should be based on the situations. And (they) made some errors. And good teams make you pay. And that’s kind of what happened.”

Nikishin didn’t play the final 3:46 after going to the locker room and had ice on his right ankle following the game. Brind’Amour didn’t have an update on his status following the game.

The Hurricanes came out of the gate physical, finishing every check as if it was Game 1 of a playoff series. They also did something they hadn’t done in eight straight starts by Andersen — score first.

Defenseman Joel Nystrom, recalled from the AHL on Monday, made a stretch pass that Sebastian Aho corralled in stride. Aho then checked up and passed to a speeding Eric Robinson, who — with Nikolaj Ehlers crashing toward the far post — shot to the short side and beat Sergei Bobrovsky (17 saves) for his eighth goal of the season and a 1-0 Carolina lead at 4:11 of the first.

The Hurricanes started the second period with nearly a full two-minute penalty to kill off. Carolina held the Panthers without a shot on goal, and then Jordan Staal located Andrei Svechnikov coming out of the box for a breakaway. The Hurricanes winger beat Bobrovsky five-hole at 1:58 of the middle frame to double the lead to 2-0.

But Carolina, as they had in the previous two games, crumbled as soon as adversity struck.

“That’s the team to beat, right?” Blake said. “They’ve been in the Cup three years in a row. And we’ve just got to find a way to close out those games — and me personally, find a way to close out those games as well.”

Brind’Amour and his team will have three days to think about it — or, more efficiently, forget about the team’s most frustrating stretch in years.

“We’re not good enough to just not play that way, and I think that’s the message,” Brind’Amour said. “So hopefully we’ll get it across, right? We try to do it a little differently, that’s what ends up happening. That’s kind of what’s happened in these last couple games.”

Notes: Jarvis and Slavin did not play and are both week to week with injuries. Jordan Martinook and William Carrier also did not play for Carolina due to injuries. … There were 67 hits, 35 by the Hurricanes. … Staal won 16 of 21 faceoffs. … Blake was minus 3 for the second straight game and third time in his career.