Panthers win Game 1 after Tkachuk's goal late in fourth OT

Matthew Tkachuk scored with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Sergei Bobrovsky and Frederik Andersen combined to stop 80 consecutive shots before Tkachuk took a feed from Sam Bennett and put a wrist shot over Andersen's left shoulder to end the sixth-longest game in NHL history.

The epic game ended a few minutes before 2am local time in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Carolina's Seth Jarvis opened the scoring with 12 seconds left in the first period, but Florida scored twice in just over two minutes late in the second for a 2-1 lead.

Aleksander Barkov tallied his third goal of the playoffs at 15:28 off a cross-ice pass from Anthony Duclair. Carter Verhaeghe put the Panthers ahead with his sixth postseason goal off another feed from Duclair with 2:17 left in the second period.

Stefan Noesen scored the equaliser 3:47 into the third period with Jarvis getting the primary assist.

Florida won its seventh consecutive road game in the playoffs and improved to 5-0 in overtime.

The Panthers appeared to win the game at 2:35 of the first overtime when Ryan Lomberg whipped a shot past Andersen. But the goal was waved off due to goalie interference on Colin White, whose skate made contact with Andersen's leg as he was sliding across the crease.

Bobrovsky finished with 63 saves and Andersen turned aside 57 of 60 shots.