Florida Panthers – Carolina Hurricanes – 4: 3 (score in the series – 4-0)
The fantastic story of Florida Panthers 2022/23 continues. The Cats also won Game 4 of the series against the Carolinas and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in their history. They were last there in 1996, but they lost all four games to the legendary Colorado Avalanche alongside Valery Kamensky and Alexei Gusarov, as well as stars Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Claude Lemieux and other stars.
But the uniqueness of the current “Florida” achievements is not that 27 years later they will again fight for the Cup. The Panthers, for example, set an unparalleled record – they became the first team in NHL history to reach the Finals and only stayed in the playoff zone by 28% during the regular season.
Interestingly, prior to that, the record was set for St. John’s, which spent only 32% of the regular season in the Eighth Cup region, running all the way down to last place in the conference. It belonged to Louis -2019. Those Blues finally got the Stanley Cup!
But for the Panthers, this campaign couldn’t really happen. They failed to make the playoffs in the finals, but motivated Pittsburgh managed to fly past foreigners from Chicago (hard to find another word here) and wild-tie a team from the sunny shore.
Even after victories over Boston and Toronto, no one expected Paul Maurice’s tutelage to confidently deal with Carolina. However, they pulled out two away games in overtime and then won the first game at home, where Sergei Bobrovsky made his first career close in the playoffs.
The Russian goalkeeper has been one of the main success factors for the Panthers in this campaign and especially in the series against the Hurricanes. He set an NHL record for most saves (126) in the first three games of the Conference Finals series, but did not lose his credibility in the fourth meeting.
The Hurricanes entered this game as the final fight, which of course makes sense. But Bob’s trust has been shattered. And of course, Rod Brindamore’s wards looked a little bored by the severe pressure and they couldn’t cope.
The guests found themselves constantly playing the catch, but still catching up. They managed to recover in the second period with a 0:2 result in the first period. Keynes also found an answer to Ryan Lomberg’s first career goal in the playoffs – Jesper Fast paired up on the scoreboard a little over three minutes before the siren in the third period.
However, at the last minute, Carolina was let down by captain Jordan Staal, who went into the penalty area for tripping. “Florida” stuck their opponent and Matt Tkachak, the clear hero of the series, ended the game with just five seconds left in regular time!
Specifically, in the East final, Tkachak scored three winning goals (including both away games) and provided an assist to the winning goal in the third match. However, he also became the fourth player in club history to score 20 points in a single Stanley Cup season. He’s already scored 21 (9 + 12) points in 16 games and nine of his assists were under the first, i.e. an effective shot directly to a partner.
As in the fourth game so far, the first star of the team is Tkachak, and the second star is Bobrovsky. At the same time, success would not be possible without any of these. In the same fourth fight, Bobrovsky recovered 36 of 39 shots on goal and won the team with only 24 shots on target!
Of the interesting statistical nuances, we can add that the Panthers are the third club in Stanley Cup history to beat three teams in a draw from the first 4 of the regular season. Previously, only Montreal managed to do this in 1969 and the Islanders in 1980.
The Carolinas lost their Eastern Conference Finals series for the third time in a row, and they lost three times by a score of 0-4.
“The saddest part of all this is that everyone will look back and say that we have dried up. But it didn’t. I watched the game I Was There, – Quoting Sportsnet Brindamore.
We didn’t lose four games. We lost but we were very close to the goal. Everything could have ended differently, four games could have gone differently. We’ve made great strides this year. It’s pretty impressive to get to this point, given the losses we’ve had.”
Well, Bobrovsky did not hide his happiness after reaching his first final in his overseas career:
“I’m enjoying this moment. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a great honor to fight shoulder to shoulder with the children. We’ve been through a lot, we’ve been through a lot. I really appreciate this opportunity.”
Now in the decisive series, the Panthers will face Ivan Barbashev’s Vegas or Yevgeny Dadonov’s Dallas. So far, the Golden Knights have an indisputable advantage – 3-0.
“It would be great if Sergey wins the trophy”
For socialbites.ca, the famous domestic hockey player, two-time Olympic champion Alexander Kozhevnikov, commented on Florida’s qualifying for the finals.
“He’s great for the team, but there’s a great guy at the goal. He has proven once again that he is the biggest star in goalkeeping. The team believed in that and naturally that supported them. If the team believes that the goalkeeper will not concede, the game is completely different. The players trust him, he is the leader of Florida. ”the expert stressed.
God forbid they get the Stanley Cup. Hard to say, it’s still the NHL where it’s hard to predict anything. But it would be great if Sergey wins the Cup.
He already has all the goalkeeping trophies in the NHL, right? So what are we talking about? Great goalie. He didn’t play for almost a season, then he came out, and then he didn’t. And then it was prepared. You have to be talented for that and he is one of the most talented goalkeepers we have. It is no coincidence that he has one of the largest contracts. God bless him and keep it that way. He plays with such dedication that you have to admire him. If they win the Stanley Cup, they’ll be Florida heroes.”