‘Total team effort for 2 games’: Go inside Panthers’ locker room after 4-OT win vs. Canes
Matthew Tkachuk was ready to leave. Even for someone raised in NHL locker rooms, nearly six hours of hockey, four overtimes and six 15-minute intermissions was way more than enough. He did not want to have to sit through another and face the prospect of another period — or, with the way Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals went, maybe even more — of skating up and down the rink at PNC Arena.
With only a few seconds to spare in the fourth overtime period, Tkachuk gathered a pass from Sam Bennett at the right face-off dot, hesitated to let Brent Burns blow by him and finally — finally — scored the game-winning goal to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2, in quadruple overtime and then he pointed to the tunnel, quickly jumped into Radko Gudas’ arms and then immediately sprinted off the ice at the end of the sixth longest game in NHL history.
“Probably my favorite one so far in my life,” the superstar right wing said of the goal. “Big to not let it go to five overtimes there.”
The game started Thursday and ended well after midnight Friday. Overtime alone took more than 79 minutes before Tkachuk finally scored the game-winning goal with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth extra period. It was the longest game in Panthers history and the longest game in Hurricanes history, featured 125 combined shots and 101 total scoring chances, and kicked off the NHL Conference Finals with an instant classic.
Florida took a 1-0 series lead and is now just three wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1996 after winning the wildest game in franchise history.
Sergei Bobrovsky set a franchise record with 63 saves on 65 shots and the star goaltender did it without allowing a single 5-on-5 goal. Star defenseman Brandon Montour played 57:27 — the seventh most time on ice in a single game in NHL history. All-Star center Aleksander Barkov “took like a thousand draws,” Tkachuk joked, and he was only so far off — the All-Star center actually took 51.
Numbers like those only tell a small part of the story, too. The low-scoring game also had two lead changes and a would-be game-winning goal in the first overtime wiped away after a replay review. Even before the game dragged on to the third and fourth overtimes, it was already weird.
Start with the Panthers’ comeback: It happened in just 2:15, as Barkov and left wing Carter Verhaeghe scored 135 seconds apart to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in the last five minutes of the second period.
Skip ahead to the third period: Carolina tied the game with its second power-play goal early in the third, finished the period with a 14-1 advantage in scoring chances, and was still lucky to get to overtime because Montour shot a puck directly at Frederik Andersen after the star goaltender lost the puck and wasn’t looking at the 29-year-old Canadian.
Go to the first overtime: Ryan Lomberg zipped a shot past Andersen with 17:26 left in the first extra period and celebrated, only for a review to determine fellow winger Colin White interfered with the 33-year-old goalie, even Hurricanes forward Jack Drury bumped White first.
This all could have been done so much sooner.
“I would’ve been open to that,” coach Paul Maurice said. “There’s calls on the ice that you don’t like and it can’t take you out of the rhythm. ... I didn’t think you saw it in our game, especially because you have the opportunity to celebrate. There’s this release and euphoria, and then you’ve got to rein it right back in and get back to work.”
Florida did, for nearly three more hours, sitting through three more intermissions and launching more than 30 more shots at Andersen to try to end the marathon contest.
Across the board, the Panthers got gigantic performances. Barkov had a goal and an assist, posted a plus-minus of plus-2 and had three shots. Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist, too, and also posted a plus-minus of plus-2 with six shots. Right wing Anthony Duclair helped set up both of his teammates with two assists, also had a plus-minus of plus-2, and ripped eight shots at Andersen and blocked one. Montour fired eight shots and had a plus-minus of plus-3, and fellow defenseman Gustav Forsling had six shots, a plus-minus of plus-1 and blocked four shots.
Tkachuk scored on his third shot and had a plus-minus of plus-1, and got set up by Bennett, who also had a plus-minus of plus-1, and logged four shots and blocked two.
Both teams had at least 38 blocked shots and Florida landed 46 hits, led by defenseman Gudas with 12.
“Total team effort,” Tkachuk said, “for two games, basically.”
No performance was bigger than Bobrovsky’s. The 34-year-old goalie made too many spectacular saves to possibly recount them all, but he faced 26 high-danger chances and only let in two goals to get the win. Bobrovsky saved 5.34 goals above expected — the second most in a single game, as far back as Evolving-Hockey.com’s data goes.
Of course, none of this would’ve happened if Lomberg’s goal had just counted, like the Panthers thought it should have.
The 28-year-old winger, who was back in the lineup for the first time since Round 1 after dealing with an upper-body injury, took a quick shot off a turnover and went over to bang on the glass next to his bench to celebrate.
When the officials reversed the call, it could have devastated Florida. Instead, the Panthers relished the chance to be part of some history.
“We didn’t know what number overtime we were on,” Lomberg said. “We were just out there playing.”
“During the game, you’re thinking like this has to be at least close to the longest game ever,” Barkov added.
Said Tkachuk: “I hope you guys and everybody else enjoyed that game because what I’m seeing is two really good teams fighting it out for every inch.”
In the other locker room, Carolina was devastated. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said it was “the worst way to lose.”
A marathon like this one could have real effects on Game 2, set to happen just about 42 hours later in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“At the end of the day, both teams spent what they had to and that’s a huge cost for both teams,” Maurice said. “It’s a race to recover now.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 7:04 AM.
