PANTHERS TAKE GAME 1 IN 4 OVERTIMES

Matthew Tkachuk beat Frederik Andersen in the final seconds of the fourth overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 victory over the host Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final.

Tkachuck took a feed from Sam Bennett after Florida won a battle for the puck as Carolina tried to clearit, then whipped a shot from the right circle past Andersen with 12.7 seconds left.

That sent Tkachuck racing

Panthers 3, Hurricanes 2 (4OTs)

toward center ice to celebrate with teammates in what turned into the longest game in either franchises’ history, as well as the sixthlongest game in NHL history.

Florida won its seventh straight road game in these playoffs and improved to 5-0 in overtime. Game 2 is Saturday night in Raleigh.

Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe scored in regulation for the Panthers, and Sergei Bobrovsky made a whopping 63 saves in what turned into a goaltender battle as the game got more ragged as players racked up the ice time.

Andersen finished with 57 saves for Carolina, which got power-play goals from Seth Jarvis and Stefan Noesen.

The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime.

Familiar faces

Dallas coach Pete DeBoer couldn’t hide his joy when the Stars beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-0 in January.

DeBoer — fired by the Golden Knights after the previous season — chugged a beer in the locker room. “Nailed it,” he said afterward.

Now there is much more on the line for DeBoer and the Stars than revenge and a cold one. They play the Knights in the Western Conference Final, the first game is tonight in Las Vegas. The

Knights are a minus-140 favorite to win the NHL playoffs series.

Knights coach Bruce Cassidy, who was fired by Boston after last season, said DeBoer could have some advantages in knowing Vegas’ players strengths and weaknesses. But the Knights have two assistants on staff who coached under DeBoer last season and another, John Stevens, was on the Dallas bench the past three seasons.

“I’m just putting my feet up and relaxing because those guys have all the information,” Cassidy said tongue-in-cheek.

DeBoer took Vegas to the NHL semifinals two years in a row. When the injury-riddled Knights failed to make the playoffs last season for the first time in the franchise’s short history, DeBoer was let go.

And now he faces his old team for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final.

“No hiding from the fact that it means a little more,” said DeBoer, who kept his Las Vegas home.