Pressure Point: Panthers, Heat have S. Florida soaring on remarkable playoff ride

Most of the time watching sports is a grind, often more heartbreak than happiness.

Right now for fans in South Florida, it’s an absolute gift.

The reward for sitting through nearly 140 minutes of Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals was seeing a Florida Panthers victory rat tossed on the ice in Raleigh, N.C., at 2 a.m.

Matthew Tkachuk’s goal ending the sixth-longest Stanley Cup playoff game came 12.7 seconds before the end of the fourth overtime early Friday morning.

The Panthers’ win against the favored Carolina Hurricanes came on the heels of the Miami Heat shocking the highly favored Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern finals the previous night in Boston.

The Heat followed suit Friday night with a 111-105 comeback win, sweeping the first two games of the series at Boston’s TD Garden, the same building where the Panthers eliminated the record-breaking Bruins in the first round of this amazing playoff journey.

Panthers, Heat fans seeing double — in good way

It’s a challenge for fans to keep up with two teams playing like destiny’s children at the same time and you can’t help but hitch a ride for as long as it goes. That means nightly dinners in front of the TV and abbreviated sleep, hopefully continuing for awhile.

But hopefully not another marathon ice dance like had the Panthers and Hurricanes in a standoff that seemed as if it might last until dawn or the ice melted.

Four overtimes was an excess of hockey even for Mr. Hockey, Wayne Gretzky. The Great One, on the TNT studio panel, remarked before the fourth overtime that he hoped someone would score in that period because “enough is enough.”

Tkachuk scores goal for ages

Tkachuk obliged just before the end of that fourth 20-minute extra session with a quick snipe from the right circle.

It took a moment to register that the Panthers had finally penetrated the Great Red Wall of Carolina, goalie Frederik Andersen.

“Probably my favorite [goal] I’ve scored in my life,” said Tkachuk, who has more than met expectations from the trade that brought him to Florida from Calgary for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.

GM Bill Zito swung the deal as part of a plan to transform the Panthers from a freewheeling offensive team into one that could play the tighter, grind-it-out style needed to succeed in the playoffs.

The transition took half the season to gain traction under coach Paul Maurice and allay doubts, but Ka-Chuckie and Co. have revived the Spirit of ’96 in South Florida, when the lovable third-year expansion Panthers took the region on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals. That ended in a triple-overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Remarkable stat from @NHL_On_TNT: #FlaPanthers Brandon Montour has skated more than 8.3 miles over these 6.5 periods of hockey. He’s a mile clear of the next closest player in Game 1.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) May 19, 2023

Panthers believe in ‘Bob’

This Panthers team has the talent and an upwelling of confidence that just might finish the job this time.

Since falling behind Boston 3 games to 1 in the first round, the Panthers have won eight of nine. Five of those wins have come in overtime. They have won seven away games in a row.

It took till tomorrow to score the winning goal in Game 1, but the Panthers put priority on making sure they didn’t give one up.

Veteran goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who started the playoffs backing up journeyman Alex Lyon, is finally playing up to his $70 million contract. He set a franchise record with 63 saves — including all 34 he faced in overtime — and didn’t allow a goal for the final 97 minutes of Game 1.

The Panthers believe in ‘Bob’ like never before, and he’s earned it while going 8-1 since an overtime win over the Bruins in Game 5 of the first round.

Brandon Montour on the beast that is Sergei Bobrovsky:

“It’s crazy. He’s so calm. Works extremely hard at his craft and has shown up in big moments. It keeps us even keel and we know we have a guy back there that’s battling as hard as anyone.” pic.twitter.com/dUjfzEw0Se

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 19, 2023

Heat inspired by Panthers’ win

While the Panthers rest up for Game 2 on Saturday, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo led the Heat back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, combining for 17 points down the stretch that also saw key contributions from Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and others. Caleb Martin kept the Heat in the game with 25 points off the bench.

Friday morning, veteran forward Udonis Haslem told reporters at the Heat’s shootaround that he stayed up for the entire hockey game and was inspired by the Panthers’ dramatic win.

“Those boys got heart,” he said. “I loved the look on the fans’ faces after the game, too. That was amazing.”

Had to feel for the dejected Hurricanes fans who still had a traffic jam and a drive home ahead of them before an early wake-up call. Panthers fans had the most uplifting winning afterglow to carry them through work on Friday.

Tkachuk expressed that he feels kinship with the Heat’s Butler, who wore the Panthers star’s jersey at practice Thursday and plays a similar emotional style.

The impulse is to say that South Florida has never seen the likes of two teams simultaneously playing in the semifinals of their sport. Yet it was only about six weeks ago that the Miami Hurricanes and FAU Owls both made it to the college basketball Final Four.

The rarity of what the Panthers and Heat are doing is heightened by both barely making the playoffs as No. 8 seeds and beginning by knocking off the top teams of the regular season.

Both remain underdogs in their respective Eastern finals — incredibly, the Celtics are favored in Game 3 in Miami despite their 2-0 deficit in the series — but neither believe it.

Best time to be South Florida sports fan

If winning is contagious, it has caught on with multiple teams in South Florida like never before. Even the under-the-radar Marlins are second in the National League East and just got the first major league win from 20-year-old pitching phenom Eury Perez.

The Miami Dolphins have amassed a roster of talent to raise expectations for the fall. The football Hurricanes appear on the rise as well.

But right now, the Panthers and Heat are the gift that keeps on giving.

Get ready for more late nights at the local arenas or in front of the TV. This could take awhile.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams for four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns