In the dim light of overtime, the ice whispered with anticipation. A tension-filled silence enveloped the crowd as Anton Lundell glided with purpose at the BB&T Center. As the clock ticked 1:36 into the extra period, destiny found him. With the precision of an artist, Lundell captured the essence of triumph, lifting the Florida Panthers over the valiant Ottawa Senators with a scoreline that read 3-2.
For Lundell, it was a moment that was etched into his memory like a timeless sculpture. “It must have been one of the coolest moments in this building (for me) for sure,” he confessed. His strategy was simple, yet executed with the elegance of a seasoned maestro, “out there in overtime, I just waited for my opportunity, got the puck, saw the short side was open, so I tried to pick the corner.”
It wasn’t just Lundell who basked in glory that Tuesday night; Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour were also architects of victory, chiseling their names into the scoreboard. Meanwhile, the sentinel between the posts, Sergei Bobrovsky, turned aside 28 shots, stitching together the Panthers’ sixth consecutive win – a fabric of resilience and determination.
Though the Senators, with the deft touch of Thomas Chabot and the youthful exuberance of Tim Stutzle, managed to etch two goals, their efforts fell just shy. Their netminder, Joonas Korpisalo, was left to reflect on what might have been after halting 31 attempts – a commendable performance in the shadow of defeat.
“We are a good hockey team and I thought we had a chance of winning it,” Senators coach Jaques Martin reflected, his words tinged with the bittersweet taste of a hard-fought battle. “I thought we battled hard. We just had a couple of mistakes that cost us.”
Ekblad, freshly returned from a bodily affliction that kept him from partaking in the Panthers’ previous display of dominance, wasted no time announcing his presence. Nineteen seconds upon his grand re-entry, the puck kissed the net, writing his narrative as a force to be reckoned with.
History whispered in Ekblad’s ears, reminding him of Robert Svehla’s swift goal, a record unbroken since a fateful night in December 1998. Although on that occasion the clash with the Hurricanes ended in a deadlock, tonight the thread of history wove a different tale.
The Panthers, tenacious in their resolve, constructed a fortress of defense, maintaining a run that has seen them keep adversaries to two or fewer goals over 11 successive contests. And in this winning tapestry, Bobrovsky’s personal streak flourished to seven, a sequence tangled with victories and the sweet scent of success; the Panthers now having captured the flag in 10 of their last 11 skirmishes.
“It’s the guys in this locker room,” Montour stated, reflecting on the core of their ascendancy. “I don’t think we’re really watching the standings. We keep winning games and keep playing our hockey, our style. Every team is going to come in and play their best hockey. As long as we keep getting better and keep growing as a group, come April, we will be a dangerous team.”
As the dust settled and the night came to a close, the Senators sat entrenched with the weight of their challenges, only the Columbus Blue Jackets beneath them in the titanic struggle that is the Eastern Conference. But for one night, in Sunrise, Florida, it was the Panthers who roared loudest, clawing their way to the peak with the ferocity of champions holding their destiny firmly in their paws.
