New York. The Florida Cats are one win away from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They beat Carolina for the third time in a row last night – and Sergey Bobrovsky kept an impossible clean sheet.
“I am so grateful to be a part of this,” he said to fellow former goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist in the TNT studio after the 1-0 win.
It’s been 27 years since the Florida Panthers played in their last – and so far only – Stanley Cup Final, but now they’re about to enter hockey’s biggest event yet again.
With the win last night, ensured by a power play goal from Sam Reinhart midway through the second period, they take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals and can sweep Carolina in the next game.
Played great last night
If so, they do it primarily thanks to goalkeeper Serge Bobrovsky, because he stole the night’s duel – up and down.
The Hurricanes powered through the game winning by shots by a margin of 32-17, but they were unable to get a hole on the 34-year-old veteran. He stopped all shots and kept a clean sheet in the biggest game of the year.
Then he was praised in an interview with his colleague Henrik Lundqvist in the Stanley Cup studio of the TNT TV channel – and he is very happy.
– It’s a great honor to be able to speak with a legend like you, Henrik, he says.
But about himself, he avoids using particularly big words.
– I’m so happy and grateful to be a part of this, it’s the best time, it continues to be the hottest Stanley Cup goal since Boston’s Tim Thomas in 2011.
– But I give all the credit to my team mates, they play well in front of me and make it very easy for me.
The star was forced to retire
One of the people with the most responsibility to his goalkeeper is the brilliant Finnish player Alexander Barkov, but due to an unknown injury he had to stop tonight’s game already in the first period and there is a risk that he will be. absent in the future as well.
However, the oft-joking coach Paul Morris gives no information whatsoever on the matter, instead pulling a heist story that his neighbor Sasha had a bar mitzvah quit the game…
For hurricanes, the situation is now very precarious. They play as much as they can but haven’t been able to score any goals, so very little suggests they can become only the fifth team in a hundred years to turn a 0-3 deficit into a victory.
– If we are frustrated? Well, how could we not be, Coach Rod Brind’Amour sighs.
The next game – when the Cats are ready for it – takes place on Thursday night.