Miami Heat Win in Boston (Again); Charles Barkley Visiting Panthers?

The Miami Heat continued South Florida’s winning ways in Boston on Friday night as it rallied from a 12-point deficit in the fourth to beat the Celtics 111-105 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Heat now holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series with the next two games in Miami.

With the Panthers winning the final three games of their opening-round series in Boston and the Heat winning the first two of this one, well, simple math tells you South Florida has a five-game winning streak in Boston.

Not too shabby.

After the game, Charles Barkley said he plans on visiting Sunrise on Monday night.

TNT is covering both series so Barkley & Co. are headed to Miami for Game 3 on Sunday night.

The Panthers play host to the Hurricanes in their Game 3 on Monday night.

“I’m thinking about, Monday night in Miami, going to the Florida Panthers game,’’ Barkley said.

When Ernie Johnson told Barkley he should head up to Sunrise, Shaquille O’Neal asked if Barkley needed help getting tickets.

“I know people,’’ Barkley said. “I know Matthew Tkachuk.’’

FLORIDA HOCKEY NOW

Brandon Montour was flying in the fourth overtime period on Friday morning despite skating close to 9 miles during that marathon of a game.

Montour said he felt pretty good — and the Panthers have been impressed by him all season long.

— The Panthers and Hurricanes both took Friday off after their game ended at 1:54 a.m. on Friday. Both teams could use the rest with Game 2 firing up tonight at 8.

—  The Panthers needed a hero in the fourth overtime on Friday and Matthew Tkachuk answered the call. No one wanted to sit through another intermission and play a fifth overtime after all. Tkachuk’s goal came with 12.7 seconds left before that fifth OT would have been needed.

— Know who stayed up to watch all of Game 1? Udonis Haslem. According to the Miami Herald, he thought Ryan Lomberg got cheated out of an overtime winner.

— Florida found a way to beat the Hurricanes as they ran their playoff road record to 7-1 with 7 consecutive victories. Florida is now 5-0 in overtime this postseason with 4 of those wins coming away from Sunrise.

— Sergei Bobrovsky is a big reason for these wins. He had himself another huge game, stopping 63 shots to put himself in the NHL record book.

— Members of the 1996 Florida Panthers know their spot in franchise history is secure so they have been waiting for another team to make a deep run in the playoffs.

— So, why do teams from South Florida share their names with teams from North Carolina? If Charlotte ever gets a baseball team, they’ll probably be called the Dolphins.

— A lot of video is up on the FHN YouTube Channel including Game 1 postgame reaction from Paul Maurice, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Tkachuk, Ryan Lomberg and Sasha Barkov.

There is also off-day video from Maurice, Montour and Eric Staal.

To see all the videos, you can click the embedded videos below or head directly to the FHN YouTube Channel RIGHT HERE to see everything all in one place.

If you hit subscribe (it’s free), you will know when new content comes up.

NHL NEWS/NATIONAL HOCKEY NOW

The Vegas Golden Knights took a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals as Brett Howden scored 95 seconds into overtime.

Vegas held a 3-2 lead in the third before Jamie Benn scored with 1:59 remaining.

Anyone hoping for another long night in the conference finals had to be disappointed to see this one end so quickly.

— Could Joel Quenneville be on his way back?

— Kyle Dubas is out as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs as all sorts of stuff is going down in Toronto.

— How about the Connecticut Coyotes?

— Trade winds are blowing around the Boston Bruins.

— Detroit Red Wings assistant Bob Boughner is helping out his best friend.

— Add the Montreal Canadiens to the list of teams who may be making some salary cap moves.

— What attributes the Pittsburgh Penguins should be looking for in a new GM.

With captain Gabriel Landeskog out all of next season, expect the Colorado Avalanche to be busy this offseason.

— The San Jose Sharks have a lot of options at the draft.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

PANTHERS (WC2) AT CAROLINA HURRICANES (MET1)

GAME 2 (Panthers Lead 1-0)

• When: Saturday, 8 p.m.
• Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
• TV: TNT
  
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM, WPOW 95.6 FM2, WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Series Schedule — Game 1: Florida 3, @Carolina 2; Game 2:Saturday at Carolina, 8 (TNT); Game 3: Monday at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 4: Wednesday, May 24 at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 5*: Friday, May 26 at Carolina, 8 (TNT); Game 6*:Sunday, May 28 at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 7*: Tuesday, May 30 at Carolina, 8 (TNT). *If Necessary
• Season Series: (Carolina won 2-1): @Florida 3, Carolina 0 (Nov.9);@Carolina 4, Florida 0 (Dec. 30); Carolina 6, @Florida 4 (April 13)
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Carolina/Hartford leads 71-46-10, 11 ties
• Postseason History: First Meeting
• How They Got Here — Carolina: d. New York Islanders in 6; d. New Jersey Devils in 5. Florida: d. Boston Bruins in 7; d. Toronto Maple Leafs in 5.