Panthers scratch and claw their way to overtime win, stave off elimination

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The Florida Panthers watched Bruins forward Brad Marchand skate in alone on goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, with the seconds ticking away in the third period of a 3-3 game.

If Marchand scores, Florida's season is over.

"I knew it wasn’t going in," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, before admitting that he was lying. "You can't know that it wasn't going in, so I'm full of (it) when I just said that to you.

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Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) celebrates scoring the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins during overtime of Game 5 in the first round of the NHL hockey playoffs, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Boston.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

"But I don’t feel like we’ve had a whole lot of advantage in this series, in the karma of the game," Maurice said after Bobrovsky's save with 1 second left sent the game into overtime, where Matthew Tkachuk won it. "I just felt that we had stored enough karma that that shot wouldn’t go in."

Tkachuk scored six minutes into overtime, and Bobrovsky stopped 44 shots to help the Panthers beat the Bruins 4-3 on Wednesday night and force their first-round playoff series back to Florida for a sixth game.

One game after Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark tried to fight Tkachuk, the Panthers forward took advantage of Ullmark’s sloppy puck play behind the net to cut Boston's lead in the best-of-seven series to 3-2.

"A little bit of pinball and it somehow got right on my stick. I made sure to put it home," Tkachuk said. "Bob made a hell of a save, otherwise our season's over. ... Things happen fast in playoffs."

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