Heat’s Haslem sticks with Panthers to finish of 4OT victory, ‘The boys got heart’

BOSTON — Yes Udonis Haslem, even with a shootaround scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at TD Garden, stayed up for all of the Florida Panthers’ quadruple-overtime Thursday night victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

And yes, the 42-year-old Miami Heat captain was duly impressed, as much by the endurance and conditioning as the grit to persevere to the 3-2 road victory in the opening game of that NHL Eastern Conference final.

“I’m a night owl,” Haslem said ahead of the Heat’s Friday night Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics. “I don’t sleep very often. I don’t sleep much. I average about 3 a.m, 4 a.m, anyway.”

To that end, the 2 a.m. finish was right in Haslem’s wheelhouse.

“I watched the whole game,” he said. “It was an exciting game. Damn it was exciting. The boys got heart, man. Them boys got heart. And I loved the look on the fans’ faces after the game, too. Oh, that was amazing.”

Haslem thought it would be an earlier night for South Florida’s hockey team before a goal in the first overtime by the Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg was disallowed due to goaltender interference following a Hurricanes challenge.

“I didn’t really understand, because I had the hockey game on mute and had the basketball game on loud,” Haslem said of the simultaneous (but shorter) Denver Nuggets victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. “So I didn’t really understand what happened with that goal, some kind of interference. I thought they were cheating. I called it cheating at first.

“Man, that was crazy, man. First of all, I’m happy I didn’t post the one that got taken away. Because I got excited. I recorded. I was about to hit send on the Instagram and they took it back.”

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Finally, with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth full 20-minute overtime period, the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk netted the game-winner.

That goal came after the equivalent of 2 1/3 full games.

“Man, we can’t do that,” Haslem said. “We can’t do that. I was wondering how they were able to do it. And then as soon as the guy scored the goal he shot off the tunnel like he still had energy. He should be tired. He should get carried to the tunnel. He hauled ass to the tunnel.”

During the regular season, there is a single five-minute overtime played four-on-four. If tied at the end of that overtime during the regular season, the winning team is decided in a shootout round between individual skaters and the opposing goaltender. During the playoffs, as many 20-minute overtime periods are played five-on-five as needed to produce a winning goal.

“I don’t understand what kind of shape they’re in,” Haslem said, “but clearly it’s amazing conditioning.”

The Panthers’ victory came in the wake of Heat forward Jimmy Butler getting up evening shots Thursday in Boston in a Tkachuk jersey.

Haslem’s jersey collection is limited to one from friend Anthony Duclair, the Panthers’ right wing, as well as one the Panthers made for Haslem.

For their part, the Panthers traveled to Raleigh, N.C., in Heat gear in solidarity with the Heat’s playoff push.

During the previous round, Haslem banged the pregame drum before the Panthers’ Game 3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the East semifinals.

“I was already thinking about going back,” Haslem said of the short commute to Sunrise from his Southwest Ranches home. “Probably not banging the drum, but definitely going back and catching a game. But I mean I’m 1-0 banging the drum, so I might need to keep it going. But definitely trying to catch another game when we get back, if it works on our schedule.”

Sticking nose in

Second-year center Omer Yurtseven said it was rookie teammate Orlando Robinson who caught him with the blow that landed him on the Heat injury report.

The two were part of a two-on-two session Thursday when the errant elbow was thrown amid their scrimmage. That led to Yurtsven being listed with a nose contusion.

“Just an elbow to the nose,” Yurtseven said Friday . . .

Guard Gabe Vincent said the 8:30 p.m. start times from the conference finals onward can make for long days.

“It’s horrible. The wait is horrible,” he said. “It’s like Christmas morning, trying to wait for that. You take a nap, you do your routine, things you typically would do, and stay in your flow as much as possible.” . . .

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday that by now it should be clear to his players what it is like going against an opponent trailing in a series.

“You understand the level of just innate urgency,” he said. “We have to dig deep to be able to exceed that.”