SUNRISE, Fla. — Perhaps the lasting image from Tuesday night, at least for the Florida Panthers, was of Matthew Tkachuk diving toward the Panthers’ empty net, trying to keep the puck out, trying to keep the dream of finishing the Stanley Cup Final alive. . He slid face down through the slot, stick outstretched, and launched the puck just inches before he crossed the goal line with 21 seconds left.
He was barely up when Connor McDavid made the effort moot with an empty-net goal at 19:41, giving the Edmonton Oilers a 5-3 victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to extend once again the series. which the Panthers once led 3-0.
Now, the Panthers face another long plane ride before Game 6 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; KeynoteUSA, KeynoteUSA+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
And yet after the game they were not furious. They weren’t angry. Disappointed in themselves, of course. Disappointed that they would have to return to Edmonton. Disappointed that they weren’t going to spend the night drinking champagne from a glass they had worked their whole lives to win.
But not crushed. No, not crushed. Calmer.
“We just have to win one game,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. “It’s as simple as that. We’re not thinking about that. We’re just thinking about winning a game.”
Do you feel pressured?
“No, no, no,” Tkachuk said. “For us now it is not an elimination match. Let’s go up there. We have a 3-2 lead in the series. “I just have to take care of business like we did in Game 3 (a 4-3 win in Edmonton).”
Earlier in the day, Tkachuk had sat at a podium at the Panthers’ practice facility. He stopped short of guaranteeing that the final would end after the fifth game, but he came close, brimming with confidence in himself and his team.
“We have the opportunity to achieve the most important goal of our lives, so let’s do it,” he said.
They didn’t do it. They could not.
But there was something else he said Tuesday morning that rang true. When asked about his own game, whether he could do more or needed to do more for the Panthers, he agreed. As he put it: “I thought the last game wasn’t good enough. I’m much better than that. Maybe in the last four periods, going back to the third period of Game 3, he can be a lot better.”
It was all that and more on Tuesday.
It was a classic Tkachuk performance, at least starting in the middle of the game, the kind of performance he put on regularly last season as the Panthers made their Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final.
“He was amazing tonight,” Bennett said. “He raised his game and the guys followed him. We need that from him, for sure.”
He was everywhere, all over the ice, a dervish of wanting and needing this to end. He finished the game with a goal and an assist, four shots on goal and a game-high six hits in 20:20 of ice time.
“Amazing. He was fantastic,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “He scored a huge goal and then that line was on fire. The last thing you want is for him to have the puck on his stick in the slot.”
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