SUNRISE — It had to be in overtime and it had to include Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk and it had to involve a comeback and of course the goalie had to be pulled and it had to appear oh-so-hopeless.
Of course it did.
The Florida Panthers are alive, because of course they are, because they never, ever go away just when you think they’re about to and when by all rights they should.
The Panthers will not be swept by the big, strong, physical wrecking ball that is the favored Vegas Golden Knights.
No, instead, in the first Stanley Cup Final game in South Florida in 27 years, the Panthers won, 3-2, in overtime, late Thursday night.
It was Verhaege with the game-winner, a long wrister that somehow glided past journeyman-turned-dynamo Knights goalie Adin Hill.
“Nose for the net,” Tkachuk said afterward, with Verhaege seated to his left. “Carter has an unbelievable shot and it wasn’t screened and he just beat him clean.”
Make no mistake, there was nothing clean about this game.
It sure looked and felt like Vegas was about to take a commanding 3-0 series lead until Tkachuk tied it at two with about two minutes left.
Tkachuk banged home a rebound after boxing out a Vegas defenseman.
“That’s where I spend most of my time,” Tkachuk said of the blue painted area. “Right place, right time. It was a very easy goal, actually.”
Nothing is easy when it comes to this team.
Florida won even though Tkachuk spent the final 12+ minutes of the first period as well as into early in the second, in the NHL’s concussion protocol.
“I feel great,” said Tkachuk, who obviously was cleared to return.
The Panthers won their first-ever Stanley Cup Final game, even though almost until the final minutes of regulation, they had absolutely no right to.
Sergei Bobrovsky bounced back from a sub-par performance with a dandy.
“He made some unreal saves,” Aleksander Barkov said.
There were too many penalties. Too much undiscipline.
Yet, Florida won.
There were too few power play goals.
Florida was 0-for-5 with the alleged man “advantage” and hasn’t scored in that situation in three games played.
Didn’t matter.
They found a way. Like they always do.
It’s how they’re somehow 7-0 in overtime this postseason.
Seven-and-oh!
“We believe,” Barkov said, “because we continue to play the right way.”
“We just don’t quit,” said defenseman Brandon Montour, who became a father earlier in this series, and scored the first goal of the game on Thursday.
“We’ve been in this situation so many times,” said Verhaeghe. “Since January we’ve been a desperate hockey team. We play desperate and we find a way.”
This Panthers team has captured the imagination of South Florida.
Dan Marino and Tua Tagovailoa were in attendance on this night. Those two know a thing or two about comebacks.
The FLA Live Arena was very, very loud, and raucous.
Before this game, Florida had described it as a must-win. And yet it looked for all the world that they were headed for a loss.
Before this game, Florida had spoken about the need to play much smarter. And, to be frank, on this night they often didn’t.
None of it mattered.
What mattered is that Bobrovsky has enough left in the tank to perform as well as he did.
What mattered is that Tkachuk is already one of the most clutch athletes South Florida has ever seen.
Panthers defeat Golden Knights 3-2 in overtime to cut Stanley Cup Finals deficit to 2-1
And what mattered is that at times, Florida was quite lousy on Thursday night.
But they found a way to win. They found a way to keep Stanley Cup dreams alive.
“There is a belief that it can happen,” coach Paul Maurice said of the bench atmosphere, even in the final five minutes. “There’s an intensity on the bench, and a belief that good things can happen.”
Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at.jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and Twitter @schadjoe. Sign up for Joe’s free weekly Dolphins Pulse Newsletter. Help support our work by subscribing today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: The Florida Panthers beat the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final
