For the second-straight game, left wing Matthew Tkachuk iced the game in overtime and led the Panthers quickly off the ice in celebration. A tic-tac-toe play left two Panthers alone in front and Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta helpless.
Once again, three periods were not enough to separate the two teams as the Carolina Hurricanes fell 2-1 to the Florida Panthers. Just like in game one, both teams matched up well and had their fair share of chances, but Carolina couldn’t find the bounces they desperately needed.
The loss on Saturday night marks the 10th straight loss for the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals, a streak that dates back to the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“These two games, it’s tough you know, these are the tough losses,” said Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “You’re right there, and you know maybe you should have had it tonight.”
After the longest game in franchise history in game one, the Canes came out firing on all cylinders in game two. Their tenacity paid off when defenseman Jalen Chatfield got down in front of the crease and deflected a pass from center Sebastian Aho past Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Chatfield’s opener was the first goal of his playoff career.
Their aggressiveness almost came back to bite them when they got caught out of position and Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling’s shot from the point found its way in the net. Carolina would challenge for offsides and win, giving the team a chance to settle down defensively.
The Hurricanes were able to cycle the puck in the offensive zone and choked the Panthers out with their physical forecheck. On the one-penalty kill in the first, the Canes generated more shots than the Panthers could manage, and at the 10-minute mark, the shots were 16-1.
As the game went along, the grip the Hurricanes once had slowly slipped away from them, and Florida slowly but surely took control of the game.
“First period was probably but not the ideal first 10 minutes for us today, … but other than that, I just feel we get better as the game goes along,” Tkachuk said.
In a period that was full of physical battles for the puck down low and passes getting broken up in the neutral zone, the only highlight-reel moment came when center Alexander Barkov jumped out of the box and decked out Raanta by faking a between-the-legs shot to notch the game at 1-1.
Both the Hurricanes and Panthers tightened up defensively, allowing very few shots the rest of the way. After accumulating 20 and 11 shots in the first period alone, each team only accumulated 16 and 11 shots in the second and third periods combined.
The next solid chance came from Florida center Colin White, who managed to get to the outside of Raanta but sent the puck across the goal line with a wide-open net.
Raanta made his first start in seven games and didn’t look comfortable at any point all night. Struggling to see the puck, he didn’t look quite as sharp as his counterpart Bobrovsky did. Due to the nature of play, Raanta found himself scrambling in the crease a lot as many of the Panthers’ chances came from scrums in tight.
With how hot Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen has been, it would be surprising to see him not in the lineup when game three comes around. Andersen’s big frame gives him an advantage when a puck is loose in the crease and he has been the Hurricanes’ best player in the playoffs thus far.
The only change that came to the lineup from Friday night and morning’s game was that left wing Mackenzie MacEachern drew into the lineup in place of center Derek Stepan. He came in with fresh legs and certainly delivered big hits, which brought lots of energy to the fourth line.
As the third-period buzzer rang out in PNC arena and the teams remained tied, many fans certainly were having déjà vu and it looked like a long night ahead.
However, 1:39 into the overtime period, center Jesperi Kotkaniemi took a necessary hooking penalty as a Florida player had gotten between him and the goal with a pass heading toward him. And a mere 12 seconds later, the Canes found themselves down 2-0 heading to South Beach.
It’s a seven-game series at the end of the day, and all Carolina can do now is look forward to the next game.
“Now our mindset is we gotta go get the next one and we’ll go from there,” said center Jordan Staal.
The Hurricanes will look to end their winless conference finals streak when they take on Florida Monday, May 22 at 8 p.m.
