Matthew Tkachuk completed a feed from Sam Reinhart on the 1:51 mark of additional time to assist the visiting Florida Panthers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday night time for a 2-0 sequence lead within the Eastern Conference closing.
Less than two days after scoring the winner in a four-overtime thriller, Tkachuk got here via once more, this time on the facility play after a faceoff win by the Panthers. Sam Bennett despatched a go to the left aspect for Reinhart, who zipped the puck throughout to Tkachuk for the simple end towards a sprawled-out Antti Raanta.
Tkachuk instantly skated towards the door on the boards resulting in the Florida locker room, motioning to his teammates that it was time to roll out and rejoice.
It marked Tkachuk’s third additional time winner within the playoffs, which features a Game 5 highway win within the first-round upset of Boston following the Bruins’ record-setting common season.
NEVER DOUBT THE CARDIAC CATS <a href=”https://t.co/4kOmXWF0ep”>pic.twitter.com/4kOmXWF0ep</a>
—@FlaPanthers
And similar to that, Florida received on the highway for the eighth straight time within the playoffs — together with beginning 2-0 on the highway in back-to-back sequence — and improved to 6-0 in additional time within the postseason.
Aleksander Barkov added a highlight-reel aim for Florida within the second interval, whereas Sergei Bobrovsky once more befuddled Carolina with 37 stops.
SASHA IS CRAZY FOR THIS ONE 🔥 <a href=”https://t.co/4UChhwfhfQ”>pic.twitter.com/4UChhwfhfQ</a>
—@FlaPanthers
Jalen Chatfield scored Carolina’s lone aim within the opening minutes, whereas Raanta completed with 24 saves.
Each group additionally had a aim overturned on a video-review problem for an unpenalized offsides whereas coming into the zone main as much as the scores.
Florida has home-ice benefit for the subsequent two video games, beginning Monday with Game 3 in Sunrise. The Panthers are actually two wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the primary time since 1996, which additionally marks their final look within the East closing.
The Panthers took the sequence opener in epic trend, beating the Hurricanes on Tkachuk’s aim with 12.7 seconds left within the fourth OT early Friday to finish the sixth-longest sport in NHL postseason historical past — together with the longest sport within the historical past of every franchise.
The hours since had develop into what Panthers coach Paul Maurice referred to as “a race to get well” with each groups paying a “big value.” Neither practiced Friday nor had a group morning skate Saturday, opting to make the most of each accessible second of relaxation.
Florida caught with its Game 1 lineup, together with Bobrovsky after his 60-save efficiency. But the Hurricanes swapped goaltenders after Frederik Andersen’s heavy workload and began Raanta, who began the primary 5 video games of the postseason and had gone 19-3-3 throughout the common season.
Bobrovsky was simply as sharp as in Game 1, notably towards Carolina’s withering begin that included holding Florida to at least one shot via the primary 13 minutes. He got here up with a number of massive stops, most notably when he made it throughout the crease in time to get to Teuvo Teravainen’s backdoor try along with his blocker after Martin Necas’ fast feed within the second.
Carolina rode the emotion from a roaring crowd for a quick begin, with Sebastian Aho firing a free rebound again towards the crease to Chatfield — who deflected the puck previous Bobrovsky simply 1:43 into the sport.
Yet Florida responded within the second with Barkov’s beautiful aim. He received free and alone with Raanta after Florida had received a battle alongside the boards and received the puck to its captain.
Barkov began to slip the puck between his legs, freezing Raanta for a possible flip towards the web. But Barkov pulled the puck again ahead and underneath his left skate and easily backhanded it into the web at 7:43 of the second to tie it at 1-1.
