Panthers sweep Hurricanes with Game 4 win, advance to Stanley Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. --Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal with 4.9 seconds left in regulation to send the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996 with a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at FLA Live Arena on Wednesday.

Tkachuk scored his second goal of the game when he curled out into the low slot and shot past the blocker of Frederik Andersen, who was tied up by the stick of Brett Pesce and Sam Bennett. The Situation Room initiated a review to determine if there was goaltender interference on the play, but the call stood.

"It was such an unusual game," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "It was the opposite of the first [three]. The game was a bit loose and hectic a little bit at times. There was offense to be had that we hadn't seen before and then there was tension on our end that we hadn't seen before. But at that number on the clock, we're pretty sure it's over. A lot of tension on the call waiting for it to come in, and then pretty good release."

Tkachuk's goal came after Jesper Fast tied it 3-3 with 3:22 remaining on a one-timer off a backhand pass from Jordan Martinook from below the goal line.

"They scored with three minutes left, you'd think that, 'Uh-oh, here we go.' Like, what's going to happen?" Tkachuk said. "But it's the opposite. It's just so fun being at the rink right now. We've got a few weeks left of this. We talked about it in the room, it's going to be the best few weeks of our lives, hopefully. It's something that we're all really excited for."

Aleksander Barkov had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves for the Panthers, who are the second wild card from the East.

Florida will play the Vegas Golden Knights or Dallas Stars in the Final. Vegas leads that best-of-7 series 3-0 with Game 4 on Thursday.

Paul Stastny and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes, who were the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division. Andersen made 20 saves.

Carolina is 0-12 in its past three Eastern Conference Finals appearances (also swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, Boston Bruins in 2019).

"That's the unfortunate part of this is you're going to look back and everyone's going to say, 'You got swept,'" Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "That's not what happened. I watched the game. I'm there. We're in the game. We didn't lose four games. We got beat. We were right there, and this could have gone the other way and this could have been four games the other way."

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Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin left the game 1:23 into the first period with an upper-body injury. Forward Stefan Noesen missed the final 14 minutes of the first period and all of the third because of an upper-body injury.

"I don't want to use the narrative of lose this guy, lose that guy, lose this guy, but in the grand scheme of things, we were missing a ton of pieces," Martinook said. "… That's no excuse because we're right there. They swept us, but two overtime games (3-2 loss in four overtimes in Game 1, 2-1 loss in overtime in Game 2), they score four seconds left and [Game 3 was] one goal when we were dominating. I don't know what I feel right now. It doesn't feel real."

Anthony Duclair gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead 41 seconds into the game. His initial one-timer from below the right face-off circle hit off the post and landed in between Andersen's pads. Andersen, who did not know where the puck was, then got up to scramble back into his crease, and Duclair picked up the rebound along the goal line and roofed a shot before Brady Skjei could skate around the net and break it up.

Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 10:23 with a power-play goal. Aaron Ekblad's pass deflected off the stick of Shayne Gostisbehere and leg of Brent Burns to Tkachuk, who scored five-hole on Andersen from in front.

"It's a huge confidence booster when you're up ahead, especially early on," Duclair said. "And then 'Chucky' put one in there right after, and obviously we weren't expecting Carolina to fold there. We're expecting them to come hard and they came right to the end. So, credit to them. But again, our whole team stepped up tonight."

Stastny cut it to 2-1 at 13:03, knocking in a rebound in the crease after Skjei's one-timer deflected off the post and settled behind Bobrovsky.

Teravainen tied it 2-2 at 2:51 of the second period. Skjei's shot from the left point broke the stick of Colin White and deflected to Teravainen, who scored blocker side from the right hash marks.

"We were right there," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "It didn't feel like it was a 4-0 sweep series."

Ryan Lomberg scored his first of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to put Florida back in front 3-2 at 9:49. Following a turnover just inside Carolina's blue line, Eric Staal sent a spinning pass to White, who tried to tuck the puck past Andersen's left pad but lost it to Lomberg, and Lomberg jammed it into the net.

"There's 100 great stories in that room, but that fourth line is clearly one of them," Maurice said. "So, it's nice that they get that one obvious piece to the win, not just grinding a few pucks out and blocking a few shots, they get to enjoy the arms up on the ice."

NOTES: Barkov is the first Finland-born captain to lead a team to the Stanley Cup Final. … Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen didn't play in the third after sustaining an apparent lower-body injury while blocking a shot. … The Panthers swept a playoff series for the first time in their history. … Florida is the third team in NHL history to eliminate three of the NHL's top four teams in the same postseason, joining the 1969 Montreal Canadiens and 1980 New York Islanders. … Tkachuk's goal at 19:55 of the third period is tied for the latest series-clinching regulation goal in NHL history. Nick Metz also did it for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the New York Rangers in the 1942 Semifinals.