A video coach, 33-year-old career minor-leaguer and 3rd line sent Panthers-Bruins to Game 7

There were three moments Friday when Game 6 was starting to slip away from the Florida Panthers, three moments when the scoreboard finally flipped in the Boston Bruins’ favor, and someone different stepped in to solve the problem each time.

The first hero was a coach who doesn’t even have a seat on the bench — tucked away back in the video room and buried near the bottom of the list of Panthers coaches, John Congemi made sure Paul Maurice challenged the Bruins’ would-be first go-ahead goal for a subtle illegal hand pass. The next was a 33-year-old who was playing in the American Hockey League just last week — the 17th goal of Zac Dalpe’s NHL career erased Boston’s first one-goal lead. Finally, there was another bottom-six forward who was centering Florida’s fourth line this time last year — after Matthew Tkachuk erased another one-goal lead, Eetu Luostarinen sent Panthers-Bruins to Game 7 with a game-winning goal in the final six minutes.

“That’s kind of the game, right?” Maurice said Friday after Florida’s thrilling 7-5 win at FLA Live Arena. “Dalpe, big goal; Luosty, huge goal — maybe some names that don’t get talked about in this series ... but what an enormous impact they have.”

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The victory, quite possibly the Panthers’ most impressive since it went to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals in only its third season of existence, was an organizational triumph for Florida.

Yes, the stars were great — Tkachuk had two goals and an assist, All-Star center Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, and so did star defenseman Brandon Montour — but the Panthers got contributions from all levels of the franchise.

The Charlotte Checkers got a piece of the win. The assistant video coach played a role. This series is a victory for general manager Bill Zito with Tkachuk already up to 12th on Florida’s all-time postseason points list with 10 in six games. The Panthers scored four goals in the third period and each one came from a player on a different line.

Barkov struck first, then came Dalpe’s equalizer and another one from Tkachuk on a power play, and finally Luostarinen won the game when he snapped a shot past All-Star goaltender Linus Ullmark with 5:38 left.

“Guys stepped up and scored big goals, made big plays, made big blocks, saves, whatever it took in the third period,” Barkov said, “and here we are, going to Game 7.”

After winning back-to-back elimination games, Florida tied the series at 3-3 and can complete one of the most improbable comebacks in NHL history by beating Boston on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at TD Garden. With the Panthers finishing the regular season 43 points behind the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins, a first-round upset would be arguably the biggest in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The gap, however, has never quite manifested on the ice — Florida, after all, did win the Presidents’ Trophy last season — and the Panthers now go up to Boston after playing the best game anyone has in this series, based on 5-on-5 expected goals.

Florida has always had the top-end star power, on paper, to match the Bruins. For at least one day, its depth matched Boston’s, too.

“We have four really good lines, everyone’s rolling, everyone’s playing, everyone’s doing the right things,” Barkov said.

Dalpe, who has only been in the lineup for the last three games because of injuries to wingers Anthony Duclair and Ryan Lomberg, was scrambling Thursday to try to get his wife and sons down to Sunrise, only plans never came together.

That’s how unexpected it was for the forward to be in the middle of one of the craziest games of the season. His temporary stall is tucked in a corner of the Panthers’ home locker room, coincidentally right by Barkov’s, and his eyebrows rose while a mob of recorders and cameras crowded around him.

He wasn’t in North Carolina anymore. About 700 miles to the north, Dalpe’s Checkers were playing a postseason game of their own while he was scoring a game-tying, third-period goal in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

It was a relatively simple shot for Dalpe. Luostarinen won a battle behind the net and teed up the Canadian for a quick shot in front of the net. He was in the right place at the right time, on the ice for one shift with the third line, and did exactly what Florida needed to tie the game 4-4.

“I think I’ve been the next man up pretty much my whole career, so I know how to handle it,” Dalpe said Friday. “That’s something you dream about as a kid, scoring in the Stanley Cup playoffs.”

The third line, which was Florida’s most productive in terms of shot attempts, wasn’t done. A strong forecheck let Luostarinen gather a loose puck near the blue line, and then skate into the slot uncontested to score and put the Panthers ahead for good.

Luostarinen had a goal and an assist, three shots, two blocked shots and a plus-minus of plus-2. Anton Lundell had two assists, two shots and a plus-minus of plus-3. Fellow forward Sam Reinhart, who was replaced by Dalpe on his goal-scoring shift, scored an empty-net goal and had four shots, three blocked shots and a plus-minus of plus-1.

“That line, for me, was the best line on the ice,” Maurice said.

Florida does not want Game 7 to be a shootout like Game 6 was because the Bruins set a regular-season record for wins for a reason: They are, on paper, deeper and better than the Panthers, which means they have more places to go to find goals.

Game 6 did look a little bit like a Florida game from last season, though. It wasn’t unfamiliar territory for the Panthers, and they never flinched when Boston counter-punched and landed its own haymakers. Florida blew three one-goal leads and erased two.

The Panthers and Bruins, as the 10 games they’ve now split in the regular season and Cup playoffs have proved, are just about even, no matter what the bracket suggests. There only could be one way to figure out who deserves a spot in Round 2.

“Game 7’s fair. They deserved to win games in this series, for sure. We haven’t been down by any means,” Maurice said. “The learning experience, the pressure and the joy of Game 7, I think they’ve earned.”