Epic! Longshot Florida Panthers win, 7-5, force Game 7 in Boston -- just like Tkachuk said | Opinion

Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk said it to his teammates in the visitors dressing room two nights earlier in Boston after his own overtime goal had beaten the Bruins to keep this NHL playoff series alive.

“Boys, remember this room,” he called out. “We’ll be back here for [Game] 7.”

He wasn’t wrong.

He was right and wrong and wrong and right so many times Friday night that heads were spinning in the sold-out Panthers home crowd like the blizzard of waving white towels they’d handed out.

But in the frenetic end, he wasn’t wrong.

The two best words in sports -- Game 7 -- will happen Sunday in Boston because, through six games, the No. 8-seed Florida Panthers have proved every bit as good as a Bruins team coming off the single-greatest season in NHL history.

Florida won, 7-5, Friday in one of the most spectacular, instantly memorable and epic games in South Florida sports history.

What a stunning display by two teams and a perfect advertisement for playoff hockey!

What the Miami Heat and superman Jimmy Butler are doing on the basketball side of town, the Panthers are doing to an equally astonishing and and stunning degree on the ice.

There are echoes of the way Erik Spoelstra talks about Butler in what Cats coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk Friday night: “I see an ascension into the truly elite category.”

Miami sports has never had a more thrilling first round in the playoffs. Ever.

To make sure he was right, Tkachuk had a hand in his own prophecy with a pair of goals and first-star of the game honors.

Aleksander Barkov had his first goal of the playoffs.

Brandon Montour scored Florida’s first goal of the night and Sam Reinhart the last on an empty-netter with 28 seconds left.

Eetu Luostarinen scored. Even Zac Dalpe had a goal -- Zac Dalpe, who had two all season and 16 in a 12-year journeyman career and never one in a playoff, until now. “Something you dream about as a kid,” he said.

Crazy. It’s why we love sports.

Florida scored the last three goals in a wild third period before the loudest crowd we’ve heard in the building.

“It was insane,” Barkov called the crowd. “It was awesome to be a part of.”

“High-energy third period. Lot of stuff going on,” said goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. “A huge win for us, but I wouldn’t jump too high. The next game is the biggest game.”

Down 3-1 in this best-of-seven, the Panthers faced three must-win games in a row to advance -- three Game 7’s, in effect.

They got the first had-to-have-it win Wednesday.

The second must-win came Friday night back in Sunrise.

Now comes the real, actual Game 7, Sunday in Boston, just like Tkachuk promised -- but win-or-done for both teams now.

“Shows the heart and passion we have in the lockerroom,” said Anthony Duclair. “We’ve had that Game 7 mentality all along. We’re playing desperate hockey and it’s fun. All the pressure is on them.”

Call Sunday “On The Brink At The Rink,” because something remarkable is about to happen, no matter what.

Boston by winning will advance a step closer to following the single-greatest regular season in NHL history with a Stanley Cup.

Florida, though, is on the brink of maybe the greatest No. 8-seed-beats-No. 1 seed upset in hockey playoff history. One win away now.

“The pressure kind of shifts to them with the season they’ve had,” Reinhart was kind enough to remind Boston on Friday.

Game 7 finds the team some already had anointed as the greatest of all-time fighting for its life in the first round against a No. 8.

“This was supposed to be a sweep, wasn’t it,” Tkachuk asked rhetorically.

The Panthers, after a largely disappointing regular season filled with injuries and a slow adjustment to a new coach, needed a frantic late-season finish just to sneak into the last playoff spot.

“We’ve been kind of do-or-die for a couple of months,” said Reinhart. “When you’ve been behind the 8-ball for so long and battling back and seeing the results over the last couple of months, it just adds to that belief.”

Said Barkov: “We’ve been battling for our lives since February or March.”

Florida led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2. Trailed 4-3. Tied it Dalpe’s goal. Trailed again. Tied it on Tkachuk’s second. Then finally put it away late.

The Bruins wouldn’t quit.

Neither would the Panthers.

Two goals from Tkachuk. A breakout score by Barkov. Thirty saves from Bobrovsky.

“The leaders carry the weight of your team,” said coach Paul Maurice.

Florida had been 4-7 all-time in playoff elimination games coming into Friday night -- including the overtime victory in Boston two nights earlier -- and 2-4 in postseason must-wins at home.

This was different.

The rubber rats were back on the ice at the end, and the fans were all but dancing out of the arena.

“I think a Game 7 is fair,” Maurice said of this series, and of his team. “The joy of a Game 7, I think they’ve earned.”

The ultimate game will happen back in Boston.

Just like the man promised, and then helped make happen.