‘Who else, right?’ Tkachuk puts Panthers in Final
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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
SUNRISE, Florida — Matthew Tkachuk‘s third game-winning goal of this postseason came with just 4.9 seconds left and delivered the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers to their first Stanley Cup Final in 27 years.
With their 4-3 victory Wednesday night, the Panthers completed a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals — Florida’s first playoff series sweep in franchise history. The Panthers, who scraped into the postseason as a wild card, will now make their second Cup Final appearance, and first since 1996. They await the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights–Dallas Stars series.
Regardless of who that next opponent is, Tkachuk is determined for Florida enjoy the ride.
“It’s going to be the best few weeks of our lives hopefully,” he said. “We talked about that in the room. It’s something we’re all really excited for.”
Tkachuk’s clutch score, which came on a Florida power play, was his second of the night.
“We’re lucky to have Chucky on our side,” said Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. “He’s been great all playoffs. We’re just lucky to have him.”
“Who else, right?” added Aaron Ekblad. “What he’s done (this season) is unexplainable.”
“Everyone sees what he’s doing on the ice,” said captain Aleksander Barkov. “But what he does off the ice (to prepare) is eye-opening.”
NHL senior vice president Brian Jennings was the one tasked with presenting the Prince of Wales Trophy. Some teams touch it. Some don’t. There was no hesitation on Tkachuk’s part to touch it.
“We’re not the type of team that’s going to be superstitious,” he said, referring to past tradition where players won’t hoist any trophy until the Cup itself. “We earned that thing. We did it the hard way.”
The Panthers gave themselves a chance to close out the Hurricanes after earning a 1-0 victory in Monday’s Game 3, powered by a 32-save shutout from Sergei Bobrovsky. Florida’s netminder was stellar again Wednesday with 36 saves. Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots at the other end to give Carolina a chance at extending the series.
Florida was in control early in Game 4, taking a 1-0 lead just 41 seconds into the first period when Anthony Duclair slipped a puck past Andersen amid a mad scramble in front of Carolina’s net.
That was just the start of a nightmare stretch for the Hurricanes.
Right after Duclair scored, Panthers forward Sam Bennett laid a massive check on Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin as he played the puck behind his net. Slavin hit his head against the boards and was later ruled out with an upper-body injury. He told reporters after the game he was OK and thought the Bennett check was clean. The Hurricanes would also lose forward Stefan Noesen to an upper-body injury.
“When you look back at this, it’s tough to get far without your top players,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said of his team losing key personnel. “But I can’t ask for more out of this group than what we got.”
Tkachuk gave Florida a 2-0 advantage on the power play when Sebastian Aho went to the box for interference, the first time — in nearly 14 periods of play to that point — that a team had a two-goal lead in this series. Every bit of action came with the score tied or someone up by one in the first 272 minutes (including all the overtimes) of the series.
The Hurricanes, in need of a boost, got one when Paul Stastny pushed a puck under a sprawled-out Bobrovsky. That was the first even-strength goal a Carolina forward had scored against Florida and halted Bobrovsky’s save streak — going back to Game 2 — at 72.
Florida carried a 2-1 lead into the second period, but Carolina didn’t waste time evening the score when Teuvo Teravainen tallied his first playoff goal minutes into the middle frame.
The Panthers took the lead back with a goal from Ryan Lomberg off a tic-tac-toe play from fourth-line teammates Marc Staal and Colin White. Florida held a 3-2 advantage in the third period and defended it against a desperate Carolina team trying to keep its season alive.
Searching for the equalizer, Carolina had a critical power-play opportunity midway through the third that turned up four shots on Bobrovsky but no goal. It wasn’t until late in the third period, with just under 4 minutes to play, that Jesper Fast solved Bobrovsky again with a quick strike from in front to tie the score at 3.
A late tripping call on Carolina captain Jordan Staal gave Florida a power-play chance with 57 seconds remaining in regulation. Tkachuk beat Andersen with 4.9 seconds on the clock. Brind’Amour challenged the play over goaltender interference, but Tkachuk’s goal stood to punch Florida’s ticket to the Cup Final.
It was a tough pill for Brind’Amour and his team to swallow, seeing their promising 113-point regular season end with such a thud.
“Did we deserve better?” Brind’Amour wondered after the loss. “I think so. That’s the unfortunate part of this. (Everyone) will look back and say you got swept. That’s not what happened. I watched the game. I’m there. We’re in the game. It could have been four games the other way.”
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
The San Diego Padres have acquired second baseman Luis Arraez in a trade with the Miami Marlins for reliever Woo-Suk Go and prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, the teams announced Saturday.
The Padres also received nearly $7.9 million in cash considerations, leaving them responsible only for the major league minimum salary for Arraez.
The transaction represents the first significant move for the Marlins since Peter Bendix took over as the team’s president of baseball operations in November after Kim Ng departed. It marks the beginning of the Marlins’ teardown of an underachieving roster that has produced the third-worst record in the majors at 9-25 with a minus-61 run differential after reaching the postseason in 2023.
On the other side, it’s another aggressive deal for A.J. Preller, the leader of the Padres’ front office since 2014. Arraez, one of the sport’s best contact hitters, will give the Padres a needed left-handed-hitting weapon after Juan Soto was sent to the New York Yankees in December. San Diego is 17-18 with a plus-6 run differential.
“It’s really amazing — that guy is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said about Arraez after the Padres’ win Friday night. “He’s probably the closest to Tony Gwynn right now, so looking forward to seeing him in our lineup. … The guy’s a pure hitter, and I can’t wait for him to help us.”
Miami is paying San Diego $7,898,602 of the $8,491,398 remaining for the final 149 days of Arraez’s $10.6 million salary. That left his cost to the Padres at $592,796 — exactly a prorated share of the $740,000 minimum.
Arraez, 27, was the Marlins’ best player, an All-Star and batting champion each of the past two seasons. This season, he is batting .299 with a .719 OPS in 33 games, all started at second base. He also has extensive experience at first base.
“When a guy like that is taken out of the lineup or potentially traded, you feel it, because he’s such a good kid and one of the leaders in that clubhouse,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “so there’s definitely a shock value.”
Arraez is expected to start games as the Padres’ designated hitter, but the club plans to cycle through the DH spot. Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado could also get at-bats there. Bogaerts has been the club’s starting second baseman.
Go spent seven seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization before signing a two-year deal with a mutual option worth $4.5 million guaranteed during the offseason. The 25-year-old right-hander appeared in 10 games for Double-A San Antonio, posting a 4.38 ERA across 12⅓ innings after failing to make the Padres’ bullpen out of spring training.
Head was the Padres’ first-round pick (25th overall) last year out of high school. The 19-year-old center fielder is batting .237 with a .683 OPS and three stolen bases in 21 games in low-Class A.
Martorella is batting .294 with an .820 OPS in 23 games in San Antonio. The Padres selected the 23-year-old first baseman in the fifth round of the 2022 draft. Marsee, a 22-year-old outfielder, has spent the season in San Antonio batting .185 with two home runs. He was a sixth-round pick in 2022 out of Central Michigan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Yankees ace Gerrit Cole threw off a mound Saturday morning for the first time since being shut down in mid-March, checking off another box in his road back from an elbow injury.
Cole took the mound in the Yankees’ bullpen at 10:40 a.m., hours before New York took on the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. He said he threw 15 pitches, 13 for strikes and all fastballs. He said the pitches averaged 89 mph.
“It was exciting,” Cole said. “This was a good day for me. I was fired up.”
Cole, 33, started the season on the 60-day injured list after being diagnosed with nerve irritation and edema in his pitching elbow following one spring training outing. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner is eligible to come off the injured list May 27, but the Yankees have declined to share a timetable for Cole’s return.
On a scale from 1 to 10 — 10 being game ready — Cole reported he is “somewhere between 1 and 5.” He said how his body responds over the next 48 hours will decide when he throws off a mound again.
Cole’s injury was a significant blow to a club with championship-or-bust aspirations, but the Yankees’ starting rotation has been one of the best in the majors and a primary reason for the team’s 21-13 start. The rotation’s 3.43 ERA through Friday ranked ninth in the majors. Its 183⅔ innings pitched ranked fourth.
Luis Gil, Cole’s rotation replacement, logged the best start of his young career Wednesday, holding the explosive Baltimore Orioles scoreless on two hits over a career-high 6⅓ innings. Gil, 25, has recorded a 3.19 ERA in 31 innings across six starts despite leading the American League with 20 walks.
Earlier this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said neither the team’s nor the rotation’s success will impact Cole’s timeline. Asked whether the overall success has made his absence more “palatable,” Cole was unsure.
“I don’t really have anything unpalatable to compare it to,” Cole said. “You know what I’m saying? So I’m just kind of like, just like everybody else, just glad we’re playing well.”
Also on Saturday, the Yankees reinstated infielder Jon Berti from the 10-day injured list and designated former first-round pick Taylor Trammell for assignment.
Berti, 34, has been out of the Yankees’ lineup since April 10 with a left groin strain. The Yankees had selected Trammell off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 18, and he collected 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 runs in five games with New York.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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