SUNRISE, Fla. — Perhaps the lasting image from Tuesday night, at least for the Florida Panthers, was a diving Matthew Tkachuk barreling into the Panthers’ empty net, attempting to keep the puck out, attempting to keep the dream of ending the Stanley Cup Final alive. He slid on his stomach down the slot, stick outstretched, and batted the puck away just inches before it crossed the goal line with 21 seconds remaining.
He had barely gotten up, gotten out, when Connor McDavid made the effort moot with an empty-net goal at 19:41, giving the Edmonton Oilers a 5-3 win in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to once again extend the series that the Panthers once led 3-0.
Now, the Panthers are facing another long, long plane ride ahead of Game 6 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
And yet, after the game, they were not raging. They were not angry. Disappointed in themselves, sure. Disappointed that they would have to return to Edmonton. Disappointed that they weren’t spending the night drinking Champagne out of a Cup they had worked all their lives to win.
But not crushed. No, not crushed. More … calm.
“We’ve just got 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 one game.”
Are they feeling pressure?
“No, no, no,” Tkachuk said. “It’s not an elimination game for us right now. We’re going up there. We have a 3-2 series lead. Just got 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 be over after Game 5, but he came close, brimming with confidence in himself and his team.
“We have a chance to capture the biggest goal of our lifetime, so we’re going to go do that,” he said.
They didn’t. They couldn’t.
But there was something else he said on Tuesday morning that rang true. When asked about his own play, about whether he could do more or needed to do more for the Panthers, he agreed. As he put it: “I thought last game was nowhere near good enough. I’m way better than that. Maybe the last four periods, going back to the third period of Game 3, I can be a lot better.”
He was all that and more on Tuesday.
It was vintage performance from Tkachuk, at least starting midway through the game, the type of performance he regularly put on last season as the Panthers made their Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final.
“He was unbelievable tonight,” Bennett said. “He elevated his game and the boys followed. We need that from him, for sure.”
He was everywhere, all over the ice, a dervish of wanting and needing this to be over. 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 him with the puck on the stick in the slot.”
