Tkachuk sends Panthers to Stanley Cup Final, after topping Hurricanes 4-3 for sweep
CTV
The wait is over: After 27 years, the Florida Panthers -- a hockey punchline no more -- are again going to play for the game's grandest prize.
Matthew Tkachuk delivered for Florida, again. Sergei Bobrovsky denied Carolina, again.
The wait is over: After 27 years, the Florida Panthers -- a hockey punchline no more -- are again going to play for the game's grandest prize.
Tkachuk got his second goal of the game with 4.9 seconds left, lifting the Panthers past the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 and into the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1996.
Bobrovsky stopped 36 shots to cap his stellar series -- four games, four one-goal wins, three of them basically in sudden death. The first two were in overtime, and this one may as well have been.
The Panthers will play either 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 ensured those were all they needed. They were the No. 8 seed, the last team in, the longest of long shots.
And now, beasts of the East. Tkachuk arrived last summer saying he wanted to bring Florida a Cup. He's four wins away.
