Tkachuk Completes Amazing Florida Panthers Run To Stanley Cup Final | stanley cup

Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal with 4.9 seconds left, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 36 shots to cap off a brilliant drive, and the Florida Panthers earned their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 27 years by beating the carolina hurricanes 4-3 on Wednesday night to win the Eastern Conference title in a sweep.

Tkachuk’s goal was his second of the night, and perhaps the biggest in Panthers history. The Panthers will play in Las Vegas or Dallas for the stanley cup starting sometime next week; Vegas currently leads the Western Conference title series 3-0.

The Panthers scored 10 goals in the series, and Bobrovsky made sure those were all they needed. Four games, four one-goal wins, three of them by Tkachuk in dramatic fashion: two in overtime to end Games 1 and 2, and then this one to cap Florida’s stunning rise from No. 8 seed to Eastern champion .

Ryan Lomberg and Anthony Duclair scored the other goals for Florida, which swept a series for the first time in franchise history. Jordan Staal, his brothers Eric and Marc play for the Panthers, received a tripping penalty with 57 seconds remaining in regulation, setting up the power-play that Tkachuk finished off.

Jesper Fast seemed to have saved the season for Carolina, getting a game-tying goal with 3:22 remaining in regulation. Paul Stastny and Teuvo Teravainen scored the first two goals of the night for the Hurricanes, while Brady Skjei and Jordan Martinook each had two assists.

But the night, the series too, belonged to the Panthers. They were swept by Colorado in the 1996 final.

The tone was set early. Duclair scored 41 seconds into the game, and not even a minute later, Florida’s Sam Bennett delivered a hard, but clean, no-penalty hit to Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin behind Hurricane network.

Towels waved, strobe lights flashed, and fans wasted no time letting the Panthers know they were ready for a clincher.

Tkachuk made it 2-0 on the power play halfway through the first. Carolina, a division championship-winning team with 113 points in the regular season, made it 2-1 later in the first on Stastny’s goal, and Teravainen tied it early in the second.

Lomberg’s goal midway through the second gave Florida the lead again. It stayed that way until Fast got the tie with 3:22 remaining, and then Tkachuk finished it off, leading the Panthers to the title round in his first season.