Tkachuk does the leading, and the Florida Panthers are happily following

It may as well be called the official celebration of Matthew Tkachuk. He scores an overtime goal to win a playoff game, jumps around for a couple seconds, then quickly points to the rink door and takes off for the locker room.

And the Florida Panthers all follow him.

Makes sense. The Panthers would follow Tkachuk anywhere right about now. Two more wins, and they’ll be following him to the Stanley Cup Final as well.

After a couple of dramatic finishes in Raleigh, Tkachuk and the Panthers are headed home for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference

Final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. Florida — which was down 3-1 in the first round to Boston and on the brink — leads this series 2-0, after Tkachuk became the 12th player in NHL history with overtime goals in consecutive playoff games.

“He’s been everything, and even more, than what we had expected,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.

Here’s some of what Tkachuk has managed in his first year with the Panthers:

—One of four players in NHL history to have three overtime game-winners in a postseason.

—Finished the regular season with 109 points and 123 penalty minutes, the first player to have that many of each since Eric Lindros in 1995-96 and the first since Sidney Crosby in 2005-06 to have at least 100 in both categories.

— MVP of the All-Star Game, on the Panthers’ home ice.

—Finalist for the Hart Trophy, hockey’s MVP, for the first time.

Oh, and Florida is up 2-0 in the East final. There’s still going to be ice on the floor of FLA Live Arena into at least the last week of May; that’s never needed to happen in the quarter-century of the Panthers calling that building (which has had five different names in that span) their home.

“He’s an exceptional guy and even over the course of the year, he’s kind of matured,” Panthers coach Paul

Maurice said. “He wasn’t immature. But he’s just grown into that leadership role and he’s one of those guys that can touch everybody in the room, whether it’s the fourth-line guy or the extra guy. He plays a gritty game. He also plays a very highly skilled game so he can connect with everybody in the room.”

This is how big a star Tkachuk has become in his first postseason run with the Panthers: Jimmy Butler, who’s a bit busy right now leading the eighthseeded Miami Heat as they — like eighth-seeded Florida — chase an improbable NBA championship, let the world see he was wearing a Tkachuk jersey for an offday shooting workout a few days ago.