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GAME 2: EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
FLORIDA PANTHERS VS. LONG ISLAND ISLANDERS
WRITTEN IN THE SPIRIT OF THE UNDERTAKER
The air was cold, the sky unforgiving, and the ice beneath UBS Arena trembled as if it, too, knew what was coming. The Long Island Islanders... rose.
In the shadow of defeat from Game 1, they dug their own grave, stared into the abyss — and then stepped out of it.
Final: Long Island 5, Florida 1. Series tied, 1-1.
You see, not everyone fears the dark. Some become it.
On this night, it was Raul Casarez — 39 years of pain-hardened wisdom — who cloaked himself in the gloom and cast silence across the Panthers' bats. Seven innings, two hits, one run. No walks. No fear. No mercy.
"I am not finished," Casarez said after the game, the weight of deathly intent behind every word. He didn’t need theatrics. The numbers on the scoreboard were his tombstones. He simply buried them.
In the Second, the first shovel struck flesh.
Andre Sijtsma uncorked a solo blast into the night. It echoed like a funeral bell over the sound of 43,427 souls roaring in approval.
In the Third, Warming Bernabel added his own grim exclamation point — a two-out bomb that tore through the cold air like a soul escaping its earthly chains.
Three runs. The Panthers blinked. The Islanders grinned. The grave was dug.
By the end of the third inning, the light had left the Panthers' eyes.
Casarez — relentless. Unmoving. Icy. As though every pitch was another nail in the coffin.
They managed just three hits all night. E. van de Griendt’s solo homer in the first was their only gasp of life. A momentary flicker... before the flame died.
You do not just play in UBS Arena. You are summoned there.
And the crowd? They didn’t cheer. They chanted. Like druids in the dark, calling on something ancient.
Five Islander runs. Eight hits. Pitch-black precision. Esparza, Clark, Brenton — each drove in runs. Each carved a name into the Panthers’ stone.
V. Bujanda of Florida was not ready. Three innings, two home runs allowed, five earned. He did not survive the reckoning. His ERA now stands at 15.00 — a number that should be carved in red.
The war moves now to Florida.
Tuesday, September 24th. Amerant Bank Arena will be the battleground. The Panthers will rise from the ice, hoping to shake the soil from their uniforms.
But the Islanders have seen death. And they... do not fear it.
Because when the night falls... and the bell tolls... it is the Islanders who walk among the living dead.
Rest in peace... Florida.
🏒 PLAYER OF THE GAME: RAUL CASAREZ
🕯️ BALLPARK: UBS ARENA, LONG ISLAND
☠️ SERIES: TIED 1-1
⚰️ NEXT GAME: 9/24 @ SUNRISE, FL
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