As Panthers try to make more playoff memories, a look back at their 2023 Stanley Cup Finals run
So much had to go right for the Florida Panthers to make the run they did one year ago. So many clutch moments, so many individual and team feats, helped the Panthers rise from the last team to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference to advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for just the second time in franchise history.
As the Panthers get set for another playoff journey, with Game 1 of their first-round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday, here’s a look back at all those moments that went right for the Panthers in the 2023 playoffs.
‘Boys, remember this room’
The run almost ended before it could really even begin.
The Panthers found themselves down 3-1 in the best-of-7 opening-round series to the Boston Bruins, who had just put together the best regular season in NHL history. Florida would need to rattle off three consecutive wins to keep its season alive.
That started with Game 5 on April 26 at Boston’s TD Garden. Florida took the lead three times in regulation on goals by Anthony Duclair, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart only for Boston to respond each time and force overtime.
Matthew Tkachuk sealed the must-win game 6:05 into overtime and shortly afterward gave his team a resounding message.
“Boys, remember this room,” Tkachuk said in the dressing room. “We’ll be back here for seven.”
Tkachuk was right.
The Panthers went on to win Game 6 7-5 in Sunrise to force a winner-take-all Game 7 in Boston on April 30. The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second period before Boston scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead 4:11 into the third period.
Undeterred, defenseman Brandon Montour tied the game with a minute left in regulation and winger Carter Verhaeghe clinched the series win 8:35 into overtime.
Nick Cousins’ OT clincher in Toronto
So many of the Panthers’ big moments during the playoff run unsurprisingly came from their stars — Tkachuk, Verhaeghe, Sergei Bobrovsky, etc.
But their clinching moment in Round 2 belonged to Nick Cousins.
The Panthers led the second-round matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 heading into the Game 5 matchup at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. They watched a 2-0 first period lead fade away when the Maple Leafs tied the game with 4:27 left in regulation to force overtime.
Late in the extra period, defenseman Radko Gudas intercepted a Toronto shot attempt in front of the net and flipped the puck to Cousins on the left wing. Cousins skated the length of the ice with a pair of teammates joining him on the rush and sniped a shot past Joseph Woll for the game-winning goal to clinch the series.
The goal was Cousins’, but a photo of Gudas shooting in celebration in front of Woll immediately after the goal helped make the moment go viral.
Look at Radko Gudas, right after the winner. Russell rules. https://t.co/H4CENo4Hxl pic.twitter.com/qd6yidYa17
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) May 13, 2023
Enduring a four-overtime marathon
The Panthers at this point in the playoffs have gotten used to playing — and winning — overtime games. They went beyond regulation in four of their first 12 games and won all four of them.
But Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes was a different beast. After Carolina tied the game early in the third period, the Panthers and the Hurricanes wound up enduring a four-overtime marathon, playing nearly 140 minutes of hockey in one night.
The game nearly went into a fifth extra period before Tkachuk finally, mercifully, ended the game with 13 seconds left in the fourth OT period.
The game was the sixth-longest in NHL history.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 63 saves on the night, including going a perfect 34 for 34 across overtime. Montour played 57:56.
Bobrovsky’s shutout
Bobrovsky had so many heroic moments during the Panthers’ playoff run.
A breakaway save on Brad Marchand in Game 5 against Boston in the dying seconds of regulation. A 50-save effort in the series clincher against Toronto. All of the overtime heroics.
All of his efforts, though, always came with someone else on the team coming up with the big goal to seal the victory.
In Game 3 against Carolina, it was all Bobrovsky. He stopped all 32 shots he faced for his first career playoff shutout in a 1-0 win over the Hurricanes.
At 34 years and 244 days old, Bobrovsky became the oldest goalie to get his first playoff shutout since Tim Thomas (35 years, 340 days) made 19 saves in a 4-0 win for the Boston Bruins in Game 5 of the 2009 Eastern Conference semifinals.
Sweeping the Hurricanes
Tkachuk began the series against Carolina with the game-winner in the dying seconds quadruple overtime.
He ended the matchup in the dying seconds of regulation.
After Carolina tied Game 4 at 3-3 with 3:22 left in the third period and Florida looking destined to once again play beyond regulation, Tkachuk jammed the puck past Frederik Anderson for the game-winning power-play goal with 4.3 seconds left in regulation to secure the 4-3 win and four-game sweep and punch Florida’s ticket to its second-ever Stanley Cup Finals.
A Stanley Cup Finals win
After dropping the first two games of the finals to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Panthers finally logged their first Stanley Cup Finals win in franchise history in Game 3.
Tkachuk, who missed most of the game after taking an open-ice hit by Keegan Kolesar, tied the game with 2:13 left in regulation before Verhaeghe scored the game-winner 4:27 into overtime to give the Panthers a perfect 7-0 mark in overtime games.
Florida’s luck ran out there, though, falling to Vegas in five games.
