Two South Florida Teams Aim for the Conference Finals on the Same Night

South Florida is often at the epicenter of the sports’ universe and that theme has held true as of late. From Final Four runs by multiple teams on both the men’s and women’s side, to the Miami Grand Prix, to the success of multiple local professional teams, all eyes have been on South Florida over the past few months. That trend will continue Wednesday night when both the Miami Heat and the Florida Panthers will have the chance to further their improbable playoff runs and advance to the conference finals.

The puck will drop first for game four in Sunrise as the Panthers look to sweep the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Panthers barely snuck into the playoffs as the second wild card team thanks to a late season win streak and carried that momentum into the postseason. After defeating the Bruins in possibly the biggest upset in Stanley Cup Playoff history, they have taken the first three games against the Maple Leafs. The Panthers have gotten great production from Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Montour and Sergei Bobrovsky has been playing at a very high level in the net. Impressive performances from their leaders as well as more disciplined play has helped the Panthers go from a wild card team to the current betting favorite to win the Stanley Cup. 

Game four will start at 7PM and the Leafs will be without their starting goalie Ilya Samsonov. Samsonov was injured in a collision early in the second period of game three and Joseph Woll has taken his place. If the Panthers can play a clean game and avoid spending an excessive amount of time in the penalty box, they will put themselves in a very good position to close out the Leafs in four and advance to the conference finals.

Shortly after things get started on the ice in Sunrise, the action on the hardwood will get going in New York. Game five between the Heat and Knicks will tip off at 7:30 in Madison Square Garden with the Heat currently holding a 3-1 lead in the series. Just like the Panthers, a win for the Heat would send them through to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat made the playoffs through the play in tournament before knocking off the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks. Miami went from one of the last teams to make the postseason, to on the verge of being one of the final four teams left standing.

Jimmy Butler has taken his game to another level in the playoffs like he tends to do, but it has been a full team effort for the Heat. Role players like Max Strus and Gabe Vincent have stepped up huge, Bam Adebayo has been great on the defensive end and Kyle Lowry has provided the team with great minutes coming off the bench. The Heat have dominated the Knicks in the series so far, with their lone loss coming in a game that Butler missed due to an ankle injury. If the Heat can close out this series, they’ll advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in four years. 

The parallels between the Heat and Panthers playoff runs have been incredible to experience for South Florida sports fans thus far and they are hoping it will continue with two wins on Wednesday night. If they can both close out their respective series in the next game, they will have some time to enjoy being home in sunny South Florida while their future opponents in the conference finals continue to battle. For fans that will be flipping the channels back and forth throughout the night, the Panthers will face the Leafs on ESPN while the Heat will take on the Knicks on TNT.