Heat’s Udonis Haslem stayed up to watch entirety of Panthers’ 4-OT win: ‘That was amazing’

For those who stayed up to watch the Florida Panthers’ quadruple overtime 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to open the Eastern Conference finals, Miami Heat captain and avid Panthers fan Udonis Haslem was right there with you.

“I’m a night owl,” Haslem said following Friday’s morning shootaround session at TD Garden ahead of Game 2 of the Heat’s own conference finals series. “I don’t sleep much. I average going to sleep at about 3 a.m., 4 a.m. every night anyway.”

‘Disrespect’ or sound strategy? Whatever it is, Heat’s Caleb Martin is ready for it

Game 1 between the Panthers and Hurricanes began at 8 p.m. Thursday and ended at 1:54 a.m. on Friday when Matthew Tkachuk finally won the game for Florida by scoring with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime in Raleigh, North Carolina. It went down as the sixth longest game in NHL history.

“I watched the whole game,” Haslem said. “It was an exciting game, man. Damn, man, it’s exciting, man. Those boys got heart. I loved the look on the fans’ faces after the game, too. That was amazing.”

Haslem’s hockey night in his Boston hotel room nearly ended hours earlier, when Florida’s Ryan Lomberg appeared to have scored the winning goal 2:35 into the first overtime. But the goal was wiped away after a video review because of goalie interference.

“I’m happy I didn’t post the one that got taken away,” Haslem said. “Because I got excited, I recorded it and I was about to hit send on the Instagram and they took it back. I didn’t really understand because I had the hockey game on mute and I had the basketball game [Western Conference finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers] on loud. So I didn’t really understand what happened with that goal, some kind of interference. But I thought they were cheating. I called it cheating.”

NHL overtime periods in the regular season are five minutes long, with the game ending when the first goal is scored. If a goal isn’t scored in the first overtime, then the game is decided by a shootout.

But in the playoffs, overtime periods are 20 minutes long and the overtimes continue until a team scores a goal to win the game. Those rules had the Panthers and Hurricanes playing nearly 80 full minutes of overtime after the 60-minute regulation ended in a 2-2 tie.

“We can’t do that,” Haslem said when asked about the possibility of playing 80 minutes of overtime as a basketball player. “I was wondering how they were able to do it. Then as soon as the guy [Tkachuk] scored the goal, he shot off to the tunnel like he still had energy. I was like, ‘He should be tired. He should get carried to the tunnel.’ He hauled ass to the tunnel. So I don’t understand what kind of shape they’re in, but clearly it’s amazing conditioning.”

Haslem, a Miami native, already was invited by the Panthers to bang the drum at FLA Live Arena ahead of Game 3 of their second-round series with the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 7 in Sunrise. Even if he’s not asked to bang the drum again, he hopes to attend another Panthers playoff game if the Heat’s schedule allows.

“I was already thinking about going back,” Haslem said. “But I’m probably not banging the drum, but definitely going back and catching a game. But I’m 1-0 banging the drum, so I might have to keep it going. But I’m definitely going to try to catch another game when we get back if it works in our schedule.”