RALEIGH, N.C. — The banner went up. The champagne stayed on ice. The Carolina Hurricanes opened the 2026-27 NHL season on Tuesday night by raising their second Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters of Lenovo Center — and then watched the Florida Panthers spoil the party, stealing a 1-0 overtime win on a goal with just 4.3 seconds left on the clock.

Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling beat the buzzer for the game's only goal, snapping a scoreless deadlock that had held up all the way through regulation and deep into extra time. It was the kind of finish that turns a celebration into a gut-punch: the Hurricanes had spent the pregame ceremony honoring last season's championship run, only to be reminded, in the final seconds, that the league doesn't pause for nostalgia.

Goaltender Jacob Markstrom made sure the goal held up, turning aside all 15 shots he faced in his second stint back with Florida for a season-opening shutout. Carolina's own goaltending was nearly flawless too — the Hurricanes limited a potent Panthers lineup to single digits in high-danger chances — but a shutout on the road beats a shutout at home when someone finally breaks the tie.

A rivalry that never cools off

Tuesday's result extends one of the NHL's sharper-edged modern rivalries. The two teams had already met once this preseason, a 6-3 Panthers win, and Florida has now beaten Carolina in three of their last four meetings dating back to last spring. For a Hurricanes team that spent all summer being measured for a title defense, an overtime loss at home — on banner night, no less — is an inconvenient first data point.

GUSTAV FORSLING SCORED WITH 4.3 SECONDS LEFT IN OVERTIME

Florida, for its part, treated the moment as validation rather than revenge. The Panthers have made a habit of playing spoiler in Carolina over the past calendar year, and doing it on the night the Hurricanes hung their newest championship banner adds a layer of theater the league's schedule-makers couldn't have planned better if they'd tried.

Both clubs now turn to the grind of an 82-game season that starts to feel very different than a single October night. Carolina will look to shake off the sting quickly against divisional company in the coming days, while Florida — no stranger to deep playoff runs of its own — has an early signal that its roster overhaul this offseason didn't cost it anything in the crease or on the back end. Neither team treats one game in September as a referendum, but for a fan base that just watched its second banner go up, an OT gut-punch on the same night will sting a little longer than most.