Exhilaration, exhaustion: Florida Panthers win 4-OT marathon at Carolina to open East finals | Opinion

The NHL final four that most of America hates — and Canada, too — began as memorably epic Thursday night ... into Friday morning.

It began as a hockey game. It ended as two-plus.

It was a cocktail of exhilaration and exhaustion, on ice.

It ended at 1:56 a.m. the morning after it started.

It ended with the Florida Panthers .defeating the host Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2, in Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference finals — on Matthew Tkachuk’s goal in a fourth overtime, in the sixth-longest game in league history.

“Probably my favorite one so far in my life,” said Tkachuk. “I think you’re less tired when you win.”

It was a grueling, spectacular advertisement for the sport and for playoff hockey.

And, oh by the way: Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (63 saves) with this postseason has officially entered Dwyane Wade/Jimmy Butler lore territory for playoff wow-dom.

“At that point you don’t feel much about your body,” the player they call ‘Bob’ would say later, of the fatigue. “It’s more about mental. Try to be patient and stay with that moment.”

“He’s unreal,” said Aleksander Barkov of his goalie..

“Both teams were pretty depleted,” said Ryan Lomberg. “We were joking that we didn’t even know what [number] overtime it was.”

The teams will play Game 2 Saturday night, back in Raleigh, North Carolina, if they can work up the energy.

“Both teams spent what they had. That’s a huge cost. It’s a race to recover now,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice, past 2 a.m. Friday. “At some point you’re wondering, ‘How long can these men push this hard for that long without it becoming dangerous?’ They’re like thoroughbreds. How long a racetrack can you keep.?”

Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour called it “the worst way to lose.”

The brutal ballet of defensive hockey set records for endurance.

It was the longest game in both franchises’ histories, and the longest Game 1 in any conference finals since 1951. There were more than 100 face-offs, and more than 100 shots on goal.

Not bad for a couple of “non-traditional” hockey towns that do sun, not snow.

And here go the No. 8-seed Panthers team winning a seventh consecutive road playoff game by coming from behind. It’s a sweet underdog story, except not really. No more. Not when you eliminate Boston and then Toronto, and now this.

The underdogs have turned into alpha dogs, and they are unleashed.

Loving how The Great North — the not-so-Great North when it comes to hockey, apparently — is complaining about the “nontraditional” look and feel of the NHL’s Florida-Carolina and Dallas-Vegas conference finals.

I haven’t been this happy since 1997 when America (meaning Yankees fans) acted as if a Marlins-Indians World Series had signaled the end of civilization. Seems it did not.

I get the disappointment, sure. This was the year for the “Original Six” to raise the flag for hockey tradition, eh? A city where it actually snows would win the Stanley Cup! Boston, it sure seemed. Or might Toronto finally end the lonnng Canadian title drought?

How is it America is better at this than the country that invented the sport, by the way? It would be like the Hamilton Tiger-Cats winning the Super Bowl.

Sorry (not sorry) that it turned out to be the year of the interloper in hockey instead. Four cities where a snowman built outdoors would be a hat and a carrot in a big puddle before you finished. Get used to the new order, Original Six and Canada.

The four best teams in hockey are from two football towns, one area where college hoops is king, and a city that until six years ago had fewer hockey fans than casinos.

Traditionalists: It’s blasphemy!

The rest of us: Ain’t it great!?

Today, it might not be the best thing for national TV ratings. But in the long view, nothing will grow the sport bigger or better than hockey gaining and expanding a broad, passionate base in the South and other areas where once this great sport stood a snowball’s chance in hell.

You traditionalists want hockey to truly be a national sport? These are your growing pains. Deal with ‘em. Either that, or get good enough to beat the final four teams that just beat you and are still playing.

As for Florida-Carolina, great subplots in this series, with Florida’s Maurice the longtime former Carolina coach and mentor of current Canes coach Brind’Amour. And brothers Eric and Marc Staal of the Cats facing their brother Jordan. We would mention how Carolina “borrowed” the University of Miami’s nickname, but we’ll leave that one alone.

Penalties and the power play were the difference in Carolina’s 1-0 lead in the first period. Seth Jarvis scored with 11 seconds left in the opening period. Florida had two men sent off and were down to as 5-on-3 disadvantage for 1:22 but were only one man down when the goal happened. Maurice left the ice livid, seen shouting, “That’s on you!” at the officials.

But Florida scored a pair quickly late in the second period for a 2-1 lead. Barkov beat goaltender Frederik Andersen to his left and Carter Verhaeghe beat him to his right, both on perfect service from Anthony Duclair, and both even-handed goals..

Then another penalty crushed Florida. The Cats’ Sam Bennett was sent off on a penalty both dirty and dumb, and Stefan Noesen converted the advantage to a 2-2 tie that held up into overtime. The Cats managed only two shots the entire third period, a season low.

Florida appeared to win it 2:35 into the first overtime on a Lomberg’s goal in his first game back after eight out injured -- but it was disallowed on review over goaltender interference.

The Panthers’ Colin White appeared to be pushed into the goalie by Carolina’s Jack Drury, causing him to be dislodged and leave an opening for Lomberg’s slapshot.

Even the TNT rules analyst said “it was the act of the defending player” that caused the event. But it was disallowed anyway, Lomberg seen on the bench biting his stick when the decision was announced. (TNT analysts afterward including Wayne Gretzky agreed with the call.)

“There are calls on the ice you don’t like. I didn’t like that at all,” Maurice said. “But there wasn’t a change [or letdown]. We got back to work.”

Eventually, Tkachuk’s winner ended it. Emphatically, Mercifully.

Suffice to say the Cats’ disallowed goal would be a hugely bigger story today had the team not eventually won.

In NHL playoff seven-game history teams that start 1-0 are 512-242, or 67.9 percent likely to advance. In Panthers history Florida is 4-1 advancing from a 1-0 series lead, and 2-7 when down 0-1, although one of those exceptions was in the first round vs. Boston this year.

This East finals series lays out as a rugged drama that seems destined for the full seven games.

It feels like they’ve already played three.