*Photo from the Columbian*
Florida wins series 4-0
No one, and I mean no one, saw this coming a few weeks ago. Anthony Duclair scored, Matthew Tkachuk won the game, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Wednesday night in Sunrise.
The Panthers win completes an improbable series sweep of the best team left standing in the NHL, giving them their first eastern conference title in 27 years. Tkachuk was at the center of it all once again, scoring two goals, including the game winner late in regulation.
Florida head coach Paul Maurice said of the game that "It was the opposite of the first 3. The game was a bit loose and hectic a little bit at times. There was offense to be had that we hadn't seen before and then there was tension on our end that we hadn't seen before. But at that number on the clock, we're pretty sure it's over. A lot of tension on the call waiting for it to come in, and then pretty good release."
Duclair started the scoring for the Panthers just 41 seconds into the game, making it 1-0 on his 3rd goal of the playoffs. On the power play 10:23 into the game, Tkachuk doubled the Panthers lead with his 8th goal of the playoffs. Paul Stastny scored at the 13:03 mark of the first for the Hurricanes, making it 2-1 Panthers after one period.
Early in the second period, the Hurricanes tied the game up. Teuvo Teravainen got it done, scoring his first goal of the playoffs to make it a 2-2 score just 2:51 into the period. At the 9:49 mark of the second, Ryan Lomberg scored for the Panthers, giving them a 3-2 lead after two periods with Eric Staal and Colin White assisting.
In the 3rd period, the Hurricanes tied the game late. It was Jesper Fast who did it, scoring at the 16:38 mark of the 3rd to tie the game 3-3, assisted by Jordan Martinook and Jalen Chatfield. With a power play chance and 5 seconds left in regulation, Tkachuk scored the game winning and series winning goal to send the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Tkachuk said after the game that "They scored with three minutes left, you'd think that, 'Uh-oh, here we go.' Like, what's going to happen? But it's the opposite. It's just so fun being at the rink right now. We've got a few weeks left of this. We talked about it in the room, it's going to be the best few weeks of our lives, hopefully. It's something that we're all really excited for."
Starting and winning in goal for the Panthers was once again Sergei Bobrovsky, backstopping them to the Cup Finals. Bobrovsky stopped 36 out of the 39 shots on goal the Hurricanes sent at him, giving him a .923 save percentage in the win.
Getting the start for the Hurricanes was Frederik Andersen as their season came to an end abruptly. Andersen turned away 20 out of the 24 shots that the Panthers had, recording a meager .833 save percentage in the season ending loss.
Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour said "That's the unfortunate part of this is you're going to look back and everyone's going to say, 'You got swept.' That's not what happened. I watched the game. I'm there. We're in the game. We didn't lose four games. We got beat. We were right there, and this could have gone the other way and this could have been four games the other way."
Up next, the Panthers await the winner of the western conference final series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Hurricanes face another summer without a championship.
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