The Florida Panthers continue their fight for advancement in the NHL playoffs after a 4-3 overtime victory over the regular season’s best team, the Boston Bruins. Reigning champion Colorado is close to elimination after a third loss against Seattle.
The game between Florida and Boston was decided at 6:05 of the overtime period. Matthew Tkachuk scored the winning goal with a backhand shot after a goalkeeper return by Linus Ullmark.
Florida goalkeeper Sergej Bobrovsky previously made 44 saves, including when Brad Marchand came through alone against him in the last second of the third period.
– Super exciting! We are alive, and fighting one more day. The goalkeeper made a top save there, otherwise our season would have ended. And then we managed to score quite early in extra time. Things happen quickly, and now they are forced to come down to Florida to play another game, Tkachuk commented on the NHL website.
Of the three Finnish players in Florida, Alexander Barkov was noted for a goal-scoring pass.
Boston, who broke many records during the regular season, still leads the series 3–2. The sixth game of the series is played on the night of Saturday in Florida.
Champion Colorado looking bad after another loss
The reigning champion Colorado Avalanche is really in a bad place in the playoffs after the team already lost for the third time against the Seattle Kraken. Seattle won the night game 3-2, and leads the series by the same numbers.
In Seattle, Tye Kartye impressed with a goal in his NHL debut. Goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves.
In Colorado, Mikko Rantanen provided a goal-scoring pass when he played up to Nathan MacKinnon’s 1-1 clearance. Colorado was forced to play without star quarterback Cale Makar, who was suspended.
Yanni Gourde scored Seattle’s 3–1 goal, which was the game-winning goal. Colorado played several minutes at the end of the third period, but got no closer than the 3-2 reduction by Evan Rodriguez.
Seattle, including Eeli Tolvanen in the team, is about to make a real splash in the playoffs. Vanvanen was scoreless, but he shot the most and tackled the most in his team. Seattle now has two chances to end Colorado’s season. The next match is played on the night of Saturday.
NHL Playoffs:
Boston – Florida 3-4 after overtime
Alexander Barkov FLA 0+1, +2, 24.02
Anton Lundell FLA 0+0, -1, 17.02
Eetu Luostarinen 0+0, -1, 16.49
Colorado – Seattle 2–3
Artturi Lehkonen COL 0+0, 0, 20.38
Mikko Rantanen COL 0+1, +1, 23.12
Eeli Tolvanen SEA 0+0, 0, 19.26
