Tkachuk produces another overtime winner
RALEIGH, N.C. — Matthew Tkachuk finished off a second straight overtime win — this time needing only a few minutes instead of four extra periods — then pointed again toward the door along the boards that led to the locker room.
He skated over as Florida Panthers teammates joined him, then motioned to lead them off the ice.
Tkachuk finished a feed from Sam Reinhart at the 1:51 mark of overtime to help the Panthers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday night, taking a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference final.
It marked an eighth straight road win in these playoffs and helped Florida improve to 6-0 in overtime in the postseason.
“We’re a confident group no matter where we’re playing,” forward Sam Bennett said.
The Panthers rallied from a 3-1 first-round deficit to stun Boston after the Bruins’ record-setting season, then blew past Toronto in a five-game second-round series. Now they’ve won the first two games on the road for the second straight series, this time against the team that had the NHL’s second-best regular-season record.
The Panthers took the opener in epic fashion, beating the Hurricanes on Tkachuk’s goal with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime early Friday to end the sixth-longest game in NHL postseason history — along with the longest game in the history of each franchise.
This time Tkachuk came through on the power play much quicker as Florida pressed an advantage when Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin lost his stick. Bennett sent a pass to the left side for Reinhart, who zipped the puck across to Tkachuk for the easy finish against Antti Raanta.
“Let’s get out of here, it’s been a lot of hockey the last two games,” Tkachuk said of the message.
It marked Tkachuk’s third overtime winner in the playoffs.