Hurricanes, Panthers set team, NHL records as they played deep into the Raleigh night
What were you doing at 1:54 a.m. on Friday?
If you’re reading this from the Eastern time zone in the United States, odds are the answer is, “sleeping.”
In Raleigh, though, at 1:54 a.m., several thousand people stood in stunned silence, their mouths agape as Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk danced across the ice at PNC Arena, expending as much energy as he had left to celebrate the end of something historic.
As Tkachuk’s teammates flooded the ice and mustered what they had left to join him in a parade of white jerseys toward hero goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, at the other end, equally heroic goaltender Frederik Andersen slumped to the ice. He’d stopped 57 of the previous 59 shots that had flown his way on this night and into the wee hours of morning. But the final shot — Tkachuk’s snapper from 20 feet — beat him.
Reactions from the Hurricanes’ bench were mixed. Dropped heads. Hands on knees. Glances skyward. If effort alone won games, neither team left the ice a loser Friday morning. There wasn’t more than a drop of gas left in anyone’s tank as the clock ticked toward the end of the fourth 20-minute overtime period.
But effort alone cannot win games. Thachuk’s shot? That can. And did.
Even in the stands, the thousands who remained — and yes, many did leave early, as is their prerogative and in some cases a necessity — were weary. The dance cams showed waning numbers of participants. The spigots of alcohol long since turned off, many fans were sobering up to the reality of the situation: They’d just witnessed history.
One “fan” who should have their ticket privileges revoked attempted to toss a beer from the balcony level onto the ice toward the jubilant Panthers. They, too, must have been feeling the effects of a late night, because the projectile only made it to the second or third row of the lower bowl, smacking an unsuspecting partisan in the back of the head or upper back.
Even the non-players were exhausted.
And they should have been. Everyone was.
The game that began Thursday and ended Friday was only one game in the grand scheme, and perhaps a footnote for whichever team moves on to the Stanley Cup Final, or even wins the Cup. But it also holds a place in hockey history.
NHL history lesson: What records were set?
So what history was made, exactly?
▪ Game 1 was officially 139 minutes and 47 seconds long, the sixth-longest overtime playoff game in NHL history. It leapfrogged a Pittsburgh-Washington game from 1996 by less than a minute. Next up was an Anaheim-Dallas conference semifinal game from 2003, which this game would have overtaken some 49 seconds into the fifth overtime.
▪ How long was the game total? The official puck drop was at 8:10 p.m. and the official end time was at 1:54 a.m., so that’s 5 hours and 44 minutes of playing, pausing, commercials and intermission. Of that time, 2 hours 19 minutes and 47 seconds was actual puck-in-play time.
▪ At 139:47, Game 1 is the longest game in Hurricanes franchise history, passing Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against Detroit.
▪ Game 1 is also the longest game in Panthers history, as well, passing Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup Final against Colorado. For about 10 minutes Friday morning, Paul Maurice was the coach of record for both teams’ longest games, until the Canes’ mark fell at the 114:48 mark.
▪ What is the NHL’s longest game, you ask? That would be the Detroit Red Wings’ 1-0 win over the Montreal Maroons in the sixth overtime on March 24, 1936 on a Mud Bruneteau goal at 176:30.
▪ The Hurricanes and Panthers combined for 125 shots on goal in Game 1. That ranks seventh all-time in NHL history for total shots in a playoff game, three shy of sixth, the aforementioned 1996 Washington-Pittsburgh tilt. That record is shared by a Tampa Bay-Columbus matchup in 2020, and a Pittsburgh-New York Rangers tilt in 2022.
▪ In facing 65 shots, Bobrovsky is now tied for the 11th-most shots faced in a playoff game. With 60 faced, Andersen is tied for 32nd.
▪ With 54:43 of ice time in Game 1, Brent Burns moved into 20th all-time in minutes played in a single postseason game. Two Panthers played even more, though. Gustav Forsling (56:10) is now 15th, and Brandon Montour (57:27) is 10th.
Game 2 on the horizon
And after all of that? Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour and some of the players will be back at PNC Arena before noon Friday, less than 12 hours after Game 1’s abrupt end, answering questions about the game, and what they all might do moving forward.
The team isn’t planning to practice Friday, choosing instead some well-earned rest. Saturday, though, the teams are right back in action for another 8 p.m. faceoff.
There is no truth to the rumor that PNC Arena will begin allowing sleeping bags and pillows through the gates with a purchased ticket — though perhaps those would hurt less when heaved from the upper deck at 1:54 a.m.
This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 4:04 AM with the headline "Hurricanes, Panthers set team, NHL records as they played deep into the Raleigh night."
