Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk emerged as the decider after almost two and a half hours of play. Carolina’s Teuvo Teräväinen returned to the rink after an injury.
will show two games from the NHL conference finals this weekend. On the night between Saturday and Sunday at 03:00, the second game of the series between Carolina and Florida will be shown.
On Sunday evening at 22:00, it’s the second half of Vegas and Dallas. Both matches will be broadcast live on TV2 and Areena.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers battled on the court for 2 hours and 19 minutes until a winner was found in the opening game of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals.
Finally Florida Matthew Tkachuk hit the puck into the goal right at the end of the fourth overtime. It was almost two in the morning in Raleigh when the decision was made.
Florida leads the match series with victories 1–0. Four wins are required for the NHL finals.
In the NHL playoffs, there is no shootout, but the winner is searched for on the full field in 20-minute overtimes until the winning goal is scored.
The match was the longest in the history of both teams and the sixth longest in the NHL.
However, there was still a long way to go for the longest NHL game of all time: one was seen in March 1936, when Detroit and the Montreal Maroons went six overtimes until Detroit Mud Bruneteau succeeded.
In the NHL’s modern era, at least three overtimes have been required in the semifinals twice before: the Chicago Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks played 56 minutes of overtime in 2015, and the Blackhawks and New York Rangers played 41 minutes of overtime in 1971.
The longest streak in recent years is from 2020, when Tampa Bay and Columbus battled for more than 90 minutes of overtime after the actual game, until Brayden Point scored Tampa’s game-winning goal in the first round of the playoffs.
Six Finns on the ice
A total of six Finns were seen on the ice. In Florida’s attack, they were cool Alexander Barkov, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. In Carolina’s ranks, pucks were played Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Teuvo Teräväinenwho returned to the neck after a month off from injury.
Jesse Puljujärvi was not in Carolina’s lineup, and Antti Raanta was the team’s second keeper.
Aho passed by Seth Jarvis scored a power play goal in the first period. In the second set, Barkov brought his team to level with a wrist shot by Anthony Duclair cross pass, and got an assist point Carter Verhaegen a couple of minutes later to score a 2–1 lead.
Stefan Noesen equalized the match in the third period with superiority, and a solution was sought in overtime.
Both teams had their place to decide the match in the first overtime. of Florida Ryan Lomberg got the puck into the goal after 2:35 of overtime had been played, but the referees were watching by Colin White interfering with Carolina’s goalkeeper Frederik Andersen, and the hit was rejected. Carolina’s Seth Jarvis later hit the top bar.
Goalkeepers kept their teams up. of Florida Sergei Bobrovsky got in the way of the puck 63 times. Carolina’s Andersen blocked 57 shots as well.
The teams meet next time early on Sunday Finnish time, so the recovery will be short. For example, the Carolina defender Brent Burns worked hard on the ice 54.43 and Florida packs Brandon Moutour 57.27 and Gustav Forsling 56.10.
The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars will begin their series of matches on the night between Friday and Saturday. Vegas advanced to the Western Conference Finals by defeating the Edmonton Oilers 4–2. Dallas didn’t take down the Seattle Kraken until Game 7, winning 4–3.
will show two games from the NHL conference finals this weekend. On the night between Saturday and Sunday at 03:00, the second game of the series between Carolina and Florida will be shown.
On Sunday evening at 22:00, it’s the second half of Vegas and Dallas. Both matches will be broadcast live on TV2 and Areena.