The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs are just underway, but it’d be hard to imagine a better save the next two months than the one Sergei Bobrovsky made in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
The Panthers goalie made a sensational, acrobatic save late in the second period of their 3-2 overtime win at home against the Lightning. So, not only was it an amazing stop, it quite literally was a game-saving one.
It left Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov among those in awe.
“I saw it and will probably see it for the rest of my life somewhere,” Barkov explained postgame. “That’s what [Bobrovsky] does. You cannot explain it.”
Related: Islanders captain goes off after epic Game 2 choke in Stanley Cup Playoffs
Sergei Bobrovsky makes top save of 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs for Panthers
Bobrovsky’s gem occurred, in part, because the two-time Vezina Trophy winner was caught out of position.
Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour blocked an Anthony Cirelli left-wing shot off the rush and the puck carried around the net to the League’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov. Bobrovsky scrambled to the other side to block an expected shot, but Kucherov instead chipped the puck through the low slot to the other side.
Tampa Bay defenseman Matt Dumba skated in and flicked a backhand shot toward the open from a few feet out. From the opposite side of the net, Bobrovsky spun with his back to the play, flung his glove hand out and made the jaw-dropping save.
“It was desperation, I tried to throw as much body as possible and was able to make the save,” he said.
The save came at 14:03 after the Lightning had already scored twice in the second period to erase a 2-0 deficit and tie the game at two apiece. So, yeah, it was a pretty clutch stop too.
From there Bobrovsky and his Lighting counterpart Andrei Vasilevskiy put on a goalie clinic, which included Vasilevskiy’s key save on an Aaron Ekblad breakaway early in the third period.
Carter Verhaeghe scored his fifth career playoff overtime goal to win it for the Panthers at 2:59 of the extra period. He patiently held the puck on his backhand before flicking it past a sprawling Vasilevskiy to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead in this best-of-7 series.
Bobrovsky didn’t face a shot in overtime and finished with 21 saves. Vasilevskiy, the two-time Stanley Cup champion, played to form and made 34 saves in a losing effort.
“Well, you’re looking at two of the best,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “To sit here and be on the biggest stage in the greatest league in the world and watch two guys like that go toe to toe, sometimes you have to sit here, I know I’m the coach of one of the teams, but kind of marvel.”