Panthers 2 – Hurricanes 1 | Matthew Tkachuk ends overtime debate

(Raleigh) Matthew Tkachuk ended the debate early in the first overtime and the Florida Panthers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday night.

While Jesperi Kotkaniemi was in the penalty box, Tkachuk completed a tic-tac-toe initiated by Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart to give the victory to his team.

Tkachuk had also been a hero in the opener, closing the books with just 12.7s remaining in the fourth period of overtime. He has three overtime goals since the start of the playoffs, which ties an NHL record.

The surprising Panthers, ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference, took a 2-0 lead in this series. They are trying to make the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996.

Aleksander Barkov also hit the mark for the Florida squad. Sergei Bobrovsky saved 37 of 38 pucks aimed at him.

Jalen Chatfield replied for the Hurricanes, who finished the season atop the Metropolitan Division with 113 points.

Despite Frederik Andersen’s performance of 57 saves in over 139 minutes of play, Hurricanes head coach Rob Brind’Amour gave Antti Raanta the start for Game 2. Raanta made 24 saves.

The game got off to a strong start, with one goal and another, later disallowed, scored in the first three minutes of play.

The Hurricanes scored first after just 1:20 of play. Sebastian Aho collected the puck near the boards and immediately directed it towards the crease, where Chatfield was.

The defender redirected the puck towards the net, and beat Bobrovsky to give the Hurricanes an early 1-0 lead in the game.

The Panthers believed they had tied the game less than two minutes later, but the Hurricanes challenged Sam Bennett’s net for offside.

With just under six minutes to go in the first period, Jack Drury thought he had scored his first career goal in the playoffs, but another offside challenge canceled it all.

The Hurricanes outshot the first period 20-11.

Barkov scored the Panthers’ first real goal of the game with 12:17 left in the second period. The Panthers captain slipped behind the opposing defense and executed a superb feint against Raanta, who could not help it.

Barkov made it look like he was going to shoot the puck from between his legs, but instead came back from the backhand to shoot quickly to the side of the mitt.

In the final minutes of the period, a scrum after the whistle broke out around Raanta’s net. The Panthers’ Tkachuk and Hurricanes’ Brent Burns were both kicked out for roughing following that scrimmage.

Bobrovsky and Raanta kept their team in the game in the first half of the third period with some key saves on overplay.

Just after the 10-minute mark in the third period, the Hurricanes had three 2-on-1 scoring chances in the space of two minutes. Each time, they could not take advantage of it.