THE PANTHERS ARE HEADING BACK TO THE STANLEY CUP FINALS! The Florida Panthers have added more magic to this Cinderella playoff run as they scored a literal last-second series-winning goal to not only complete the sweep over the Hurricanes, but also cement their place in the Stanley Cup Finals!
This might very well be one of the greatest Stanley Cup Finals runs in living memory.
After a long, hard, and arduous 27-year wait, the Florida Panthers can FINALLY call themselves Prince of Wales winners once again as they beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in Game 4 to win the series 4-0 and have earned a place in the Stanley Cup Finals. And, even though this was probably the one game of the series the Canes deserved to win, nobody can argue against the Panthers winning the Eastern Conference.
Even though this series only lasted four games, it’s definitely going to be one of the most memorable of the 2023 playoffs. The Hurricanes and Panthers really gave everything they had to win this series and be the team to reach the Stanley Cup as every game not only was decided by a single goal, but they also played 17 periods of hockey in just four games to determine a winner.
Do you know how crazy that is for a Stanley Cup series that ended in a sweep to have every single game be decided by a single goal and to have over 17 periods of hockey (roughly 5 2/3 games played in just 4 actual games of hockey) played? To be honest, I’m not sure it’s happened too often in the history of the league, let alone this postseason.
In fact, this series was the first sweep (but probably not the last given how the VGK vs. DAL series is going) of the 2023 postseason, while the only “short” series that was this competitive was the Panthers vs. Maple Leafs as four of the five games in that matchup were decided by a single goal. But, even then, the Panthers vs. Maple Leafs series didn’t have an ounce of the overtime drama, heart, or competitiveness from both sides that this series had.
And that can only be seen as a compliment to the Canes and Panthers.
As for this game, it was the embodiment of the passion and fight this series has had in abundance as the Panthers and Hurricanes went back and forth taking the lead in this game.
First, the Panthers scored two sublime goals with Anthony Duclair (1 G, 1 PT) banking he puck off the back of Freddy Andersen (20 SVs, .833 SV%) just 40 seconds in the game, while Matthew Tkachuk (2 G, 2 PTS), who would return a little later to make Panthers history, made it two with a sick deke on Andersen on a Panthers power play.
The Panthers were really giving it to the Hurricanes early on the game by passing the puck around them and taking the body whenever possible (just ask Jacob Slavin if you don’t believe me), and I thought it was going to be the first blowout of the series as the Canes looked like a team that knew it was eliminated.
However, in classic Hurricanes fashion, they didn’t give up and continued to play their tough, robust, and gritty defensive game as Paul Stastny (1 G, 1 PT) tipped in a rebound right in front of the goal line to get the Panthers back into the game, and Teuvo Teräväinen (1 G, 1 PT) fired home a wrist shot in the slot to tie the game early on in the 2nd period.
And, after the Panthers took a 3-2 lead deep into the 3rd period, the Hurricanes pushed all their forwards and defenders forward and managed to get the series-saving goal from Jesper Fast (1 G, 1 PT) to preserve their slim hopes of surviving until Game 5.
Nevertheless, despite all of the Canes heroics, the reason why they ended up getting swept in this series is down to two players: Sergei Bobrovsky and Matthew Tkachuk.
Bobrovsky finished the game with another amazing stat line as he made 36 saves, allowed just 3 goals on 39 shots, kept the Panthers in this game when the Canes threw everything that had at them in the 2nd and 3rd periods, and had a .923 SV%. He’s simply been the best goalie of these playoffs by a country mile and would have been the easy favorite for the Conn Smythe trophy if it wasn’t for a rather pesky former Calgary Flames forward that has a knack for scoring game-winning goals.
Yes, Matthew Tkachuk scored yet another GWG to bring his series total up to 3 as he buried a wrap-around behind Andersen with just 4.3 seconds left in the game to send the Florida crowd into pandemonium. And it was a great goal as Tkachuk masterfully outwaited the Hurricanes defenders and Andersen to open the net and burry a rather easy shot (for a player of his caliber) despite having under 5 seconds left to score.
Sure, some Canes fans can complain that the penalty on Jordan Staal (0 PTS) with a minute left on the clock wasn’t a penalty or that Sam Bennett’s (0 PTS) stick was interfering with Andersen prior to the shot, but those two things were too marginally to truly get the goal and penalty call called back. In other words, the Panthers deserved to score, complete the sweep, and reach their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1996.
We’ll have to wait and see if they can get the glass slipper (or cup, in this case) from Lord Stanley and compete the Cinderella story in the finals, but you’d be a fool to bet against these Panthers.
Congratulations, Florida Panthers, you have definitely deserved this tremendous reward.
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