Carter Verhaeghe scored the goal that sent the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final for the third year in a row, but it would not have happened without an otherworldly play by captain Aleksander Barkov that had the hockey world buzzing.
The Panthers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday, winning the best-of-7 series in five games.
It was the tightest game of the conference final, with the scored tied 3-3 with under eight minutes left. That's when Barkov, the Panthers captain, made one of the most incredible plays of this year's postseason.
Barkov battled for the puck with Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov while the two went behind the Carolina net. Playing the puck to the right side of Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, Barkov turned with the puck as if he was going to pass it behind the net to Verhaeghe, who was also beneath the goal line.
Instead, Barkov cut to the front of net, deking around Hurricanes forward Eric Robinson, and then slid an impossible backhand pass to Verhaeghe, who was now to the left of Andersen, and he one-timed it home.
"He took on one guy, then two guys and then gave the puck to me with a pretty open net," Verhaeghe said. "So, it was an unbelievable play by 'Barky' at a critical point."
Barkov, who last season became the first Finnish captain to lead his team the Stanley Cup, has been on fire this postseason, with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 17 games, including seven points (three goals, four assists) in the five games against the Hurricanes. His career high in playoff points came last season, when he had 22 (eight goals, 14 assists) in 24 games.
"There's the beauty of Sasha Barkov. He has that ability, but he doesn't try that all the time," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "He's not forcing that part of the game. So he's not, 'Hey, I'm going to try these moves and do this and if it goes bad oh well.' He's not picking your spots. He can sense when it's the right time to try something.
"The overtime goal against St. Louis in the regular season, if you get a chance to watch that one watch that one. What's important about it is though he's been on the ice forever, he's not an ice hog and he's not floating, he's working, working, working, but he's got to get off the ice and then something happened and he just dominated two players into an incredible play and it's the back of the net. If you're a YouTuber, there's some background there."
Perhaps TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette summed it up best when he posted on social media, "Barkov gonna Barkov. Absolute horse."
