RALEIGH, N.C. — The Florida Panthers waited 27 years to play in the Eastern Conference finals again, so waiting 60 minutes, plus two full overtime periods and then all but 12.7 seconds of a fourth to finally beat the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 was nothing.
It took more than five hours of real time, more than two hours of game time and all the way until the middle of the fourth overtime for the Panthers to finally upset the Hurricanes, 3-2, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The calendar flipped from Thursday to Friday, the two star goaltenders combined for more than 100 saves and Matthew Tkachuk finally won the game for Florida with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime period.
The Panthers knew these East finals might look something like this. Scoring chances were rare, power plays were at a premium and the margin never stretched to more than one goal because of two tight defenses and locked-in goalies.
They knew they might have to be patient. If they stuck with their plan, they’d have enough offensive punch and make enough plays to win a close game. They could have never imagined this.
It was the longest game in the history of both franchises — only the sixth multi-overtime game in Florida history and only the second to stretch past two overtimes — and patience paid off after nearly 140 minutes.
The Panthers won by scoring three even-strength goals and not giving up any. Florida surrendered two power-play goals — one to go down 1-0 in the final seconds of the first period and one to let the Hurricanes tie the game at 2-2 in the third — and then regrouped to take a 1-0 series lead and steal home-ice advantage in the conference finals.
All-Star center Aleksander Barkov scored first to tie the game at 1-1 in the second period, left wing Carter Verhaeghe scored 2:15 later to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead and Tkachuk finally scored with seconds left in the fourth overtime period to give Florida another stunning victory.
The Panthers thought they had won earlier, too. With 17:26 left in the first overtime period, Ryan Lomberg zipped a shot past Frederik Andersen, only to have it wiped away after a replay showed forward Colin White made contact with the star goaltender.
Even though the contact only came because Carolina forward Jack Drury pushed White into the crease, the officials decided it was enough to wipe away the left wing’s would-be game-winning goal.
Florida had to wait until the calendar flipped to Friday to actually win the game. After they were the last team into the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs and lost 3 of 4 to the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins to start Round 1, the Panthers have now won 8 of 9 are are just three wins away from their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1996.
Five of those eight wins have come in overtime — they’ve yet to lose in OT in these Stanley Cup playoffs — and five have required a comeback.
In the first game of the NHL Conference Finals, Florida did both and did it despite also blowing a lead and getting manhandled in the third period.
The Panthers took a 2-1 lead into the third thanks to those two goals by their top line in the last five minutes of the second period and then couldn’t manage anything else in regulation.
Carolina tied the game at 2-2 on a power-play goal with 16:13 left in the third period and finished the third with a 14-0 advantage in scoring chances.
Even still, Florida had a chance to win the game in the last minute of regulation when goaltender Andersen lost track of the puck and Brandon Montour wound up with a wide-open shot against an absentminded goalie from the right face-off circle, only to shoot it right into him.
The Panthers and Hurricanes went to overtime tied at 2-2, with Carolina outshooting Florida, 31-20, and its advantage was 65-60 by the end of the game. It didn’t matter. Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 63 saves on 65 shots — and didn’t allow a single 5-on-5 goal — and the Panthers left the 18,680 at PNC Arena dazed at the end of a marathon opener to this best-of-7 series.
