Panthers outlast Hurricanes in quadruple-OT to win Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final
Toward the end of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, long after the clock struck midnight and Thursday turned to Friday — and long after most people on the East coast went to bed, die-hard hockey fan or otherwise — players for both the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers gasped for air. They hunched over after every whistle. Their board battles and stick battles weren’t nearly as strong. Their passes weren’t as crisp. Shots sailed wide, or high — exhaustion with every stride.
And yet, at the end of the longest game ever played by either team, despite playing for longer than two full regulation games, a win counts only as a single win, a loss as only one loss. In a series that could very well stretch the full seven games, Thursday night-into-Friday morning’s contest will ultimately be the answer to a trivia question someday, a footnote to a stellar season, no matter which team prevails.
But someone did prevail Friday morning. Finally.
Matthew Tkachuk scored at 19:47 of the fourth overtime Thursday, beating Hurricanes starter Frederik Andersen to lift the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 win over the Canes and a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series at PNC Arena.
The loss is the second loss at home of these playoffs for Carolina, the first in a Game 1 or 2.
Thursday’s loss was another in a long line of multiple-overtime disappointments for the Canes since they moved to North Carolina, coming in the longest game in franchise history. In their first multi-OT playoff game since Game 4 against Nashville in 2021 — and their first at home since Game 2 against Montreal in 2006 — the Canes couldn’t overcome fatigue and an amped opponent. The Canes are now 1-6 in multiple-overtime games since moving to North Carolina, their only win coming in Game 7 on the road in Washington in 2019.
The winning goal counted, though an earlier potential Florida overtime winner was waved off after it was deemed Colin White interfered with Andersen in the blue paint, breathing life — temporarily — back into the Canes.
The Canes then nearly won it at the other end in the latter half of the overtime period when Seth Jarvis found a rebound in tight on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and lifted it past his glove hand — and off the crossbar.
Neither team could muster or a goal — or enough energy to beat the goalies — in either the second or third overtime periods, though both Andersen and Bobrovsky were stellar as the teams battled fatigue.
Carolina scored a pair of goals on the power play Thursday — one each in the first and third periods — sandwiching a pair of second-period goals by the Panthers.
That the game went to overtime at all was deflating for the Canes, who outshot the Panthers 14-2 in the third period. Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie, was every bit of that, his biggest stop in overtime coming on a Martin Necas breakaway in the back half of the third frame.
How long was the Hurricanes-Panthers game?
▪ The official puck drop was at 8:10 p.m. and the official end time was at 1:54 a.m., so that’s 5 hours and 44 minutes of playing, pausing, commercials and intermission.
▪ Of that time, 2 hours 19 minutes and 47 seconds was actual puck-in-play time.
▪ The game set all kinds of records and became the sixth-longest overtime playoff game in NHL history.
▪ At 139:47, Game 1 is the longest game in Hurricanes franchise history, passing Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against Detroit.
▪ It’s also the longest game in Panthers history, passing Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup Final against Colorado.
Takeaways from Game 1
▪ What a game to start the series. Classic. History in the making. All of that.
▪ Ryan Lomberg scored for Florida at 2:35 of the first OT, but that goal was wiped out after review for goaltender interference. They played on.
Seth Jarvis, who scored the Canes’ first goal on the power play and was active all night, hit the crossbar on a power play in the first OT. They played on. In the second overtime, Sebastian Aho had a chance to end it. In the third, the Panthers’ Brandon Montour. They played on.
▪ In the second OT, they played Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” during a break. Fitting, yes?
▪ We’re not talking about young goalies dueling it out all night. Sergei Bobrovsky is 34 and the Canes’ Frederik Andersen 33 — on the ice the whole time..
“Bob” was beaten twice in regulation on Canes power plays and survived the Canes’ hard push in the third. Andersen allowed two goals in the second, then steadied while the Canes limited the Panthers’ chances. Call it a brilliant effort for both, the stars of the show.
▪ The Panthers were the better team 5-on-5 the first two periods but the Canes were dominant in the third. According to naturalstattrick.com, the scoring chances in the third were 14-0 for the Hurricanes, who could have ended it then.
▪ These guys are all great athletes but when you see ice times creeping past 40 minutes you have to wonder how they do it. Going into the fourth OT, the Canes’ Brent Burns had taken 62 shifts. Unreal.
▪ Open ice? Hard to find this night and it could be that way throughout the series. There was no feeling-out process in Game 1. Both teams were physical and the game tight-checking. A lot of sticks on sticks and sticks on pucks.
▪ Did you see that play by Jesperi Kotkaniemi? If not, find it and watch it. The Canes center carried the puck down the slot — on his knees — and passed to Jack Drury to his left as he skidded down the ice. Drury’s shot was on goal but stopped by Bobrovsky. Had he buried that one, PNC Arena might need some repairs.
Stefan Noesen’s power-play goal in the third had the place shaking. Make it Martin Necas to Seth Jarvis to Noesen — precision passing — for the score.
▪ The Canes were happy to have Teuvo Teravainen back in the lineup again, but it was a slow go for the winger the first half of the game. The rust showed. There were a few turnovers. But Teravainen also made some timely defensive plays and was effective on the penalty kill, working his way into the game.
Teravainen never envisioned sitting out four week and then playing four overtimes.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023 at 12:11 PM.
