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The Florida Panthers had the opportunity to make history Wednesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. They did not squander it.

The Panthers, a team which made the playoffs by a single point, are headed to the Stanley Cup Final for only the second time in franchise history after beating the Hurricanes 4-3 at FLA Live Arena in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Matthew Tkachuk — the hero of this postseason not named ‘Bobrovsky’ — scored with 4.9 seconds left for the game-winner.

It was his second goal of the night and third game-winning goal of this four-game sweep.

Florida, which has not been to the Cup Final since the 1996 campaign, will play either the Vegas Golden Knights or Dallas Stars.

Powered by a history-making Nikola Jokić triple-double, the Denver Nuggets rallied for a 113-111 win to complete a 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. The victory continued a remarkable postseason run by the Nuggets while securing their first-ever trip to the NBA Finals. They did so while overcoming the best effort of the postseason by one of the game’s all-time greats.

Lebron James started the game on fire, scoring 21 points in the first quarter as the Lakers took a 34-26 lead. He shot 7-of-9 from the field, including a 4-of-4 effort from 3-point distance. A lob attempt from beyond the 3-point arc instead dropped through the net for a basket in a sign of things to come.

The bucket sparked a personal 8-0 run by James that gave the Lakers a 23-15 lead. He remained hot throughout the half, and didn’t leave the game until taking an early break to the locker with with 4.3 seconds remaining in the half. The Lakers led 73-58 at the break powered by James’ 31 first-half points.

But the Nuggets weren’t fazed. From there, the game remained a back-and-forth battle through the final minute. But as they’ve done all postseason, the Nuggets made the big plays when it mattered most down the stretch. A Jokić layup in traffic with 51.1 seconds remaining gave Denver the lead for good at 113-11.

Young Reds starter Hunter Greene had some nasty stuff early on Sunday morning in Cincinnati, but the Yankees made their four hits against him count. Homers from Harrison Bader and Gleyber Torres put New York ahead, and the Bombers won Luis Severino’s much-anticipated season debut, 4-1.

Luis Severino’s return was worth the wait. It took longer than initially expected when he strained his lat in the final week of spring training, and he is still not all the way built up after an abbreviated rehab assignment. 

But working on a pitch count of 75, Severino got stronger as his season debut went on. The right-hander struck out five over 4 innings of one-run ball, retiring nine of the final 10 batters he faced in an encouraging outing overall. 

“I feel pretty good,” Severino said. “Feel like I was attacking the  zone after the first walk. But everything else was really good.” 

Severino also built up his velocity as the game went on, averaging 96.7 mph with his fastball but topping out at 98.6 mph on a strikeout of Kevin Newman in the fifth inning. 

After making a brief appearance earlier this year, Taco Bell is bringing back its Mexican Pizza permanently. 

The Mexican Pizza features two crispy flour shells, layered with beans, pizza sauce, seasoned beef, tomatoes and a melted three cheese blend all for a suggested price. You can also get it vegetarian without the seasoned beef.

When the Mexican Pizza made its highly anticipated return back in May, Taco Bell was forced to pull the fan-favorite from national menus because demand outpaced supply. In fact, demand was so high that one location in California reportedly sold 1,000 Mexican Pizzas in a single day.

Filip Chytil turned a career-best season into a contract extension with the Rangers. 

The Czech center signed a four-year deal with an average annual value of $4.438 million to remain a Blueshirt through the 2026-27 season, according to a source. 

With the deal, the Rangers solidified their top three centers for the foreseeable future. 

Chytil was set be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. His new contract covers the next two years of his RFA status. 

It is believed the Rangers are aiming to keep all of their young core. They will negotiate with K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere on their new contracts soon. 

Jalen Brunson had a superb season, from the start until the bitter end, but the Knicks’ other top players couldn’t do nearly enough to help him keep that season alive.

Brunson followed up his 48-minute masterpiece from two nights earlier  with 41 points in 45 minutes, but the Knicks received little production from Julius Randle and RJ Barrett in a crushing, season-ending 96-92 loss to the Heat in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at Kaseya Center.

“You’ve got to give the Heat a lot of credit. They didn’t play like an eight seed, at all,” Brunson said. “For me, we did a lot of great things this season. We obviously want the team to keep playing, to have the opportunity.

“It stings a little bit, definitely a learning experience. But if you don’t win, you lose.”

Aside from Brunson, who finished 14-for-22 from the field, the other four Knicks starters shot a combined 15.6 percent (5-for-32). 

That shoddy statistic included 20 of 24 misses by Randle (15 points) and Barrett (11) as the Knicks fell to 0-15 in their history when trailing 3-1 in a best-of-seven playoff series.

The Yankees made the most of their get-right series by sweeping the worst team in baseball. Now they will try to funnel that momentum into taking another shot at the best team in baseball.

In between showdowns against the division rival Rays, the Yankees got a laugher of a series against the Athletics, which they completed with an 11-3 blowout in The Bronx — capped off by Anthony Volpe’s first career grand slam.

Coming off a brutal loss to the Rays on Sunday in Tampa, in which they blew a 6-0 lead and coughed up a chance to win the series, the Yankees came home to the soft cushion of playing the lowly A’s. 

The three-game series was a welcome respite — in which the Yankees combined to outscore the A’s 28-10 — from an otherwise mediocre start to the season.

Before welcoming the Rays to The Bronx for a four-game series on Thursday, the Yankees enjoyed one more round of batting practice that counted as a real game on Wednesday. 

It included a three-hit day from Aaron Judge, more home runs for Harrison Bader and DJ LeMahieu, and Volpe’s first-pitch grand slam that put an exclamation point on a seven-run fifth inning.

Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne has announced his retirement from touring.

The Black Sabbath frontman, 74, pulled the plug on all of his upcoming shows in the UK and Europe as he continues to recover from spinal surgery.

In a statement shared on social media, the “Crazy Train” hitmaker said he’s no longer able to tour around the globe due to the damage his spine has endured in a nasty accident four years ago.

Apologizing to fans, Osbourne acknowledged he “never would have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.”

“I am honestly humbled by the way you’ve all patiently held onto your tickets for all this time, but in all good conscience, I have now come to the realization that I’m not physically capable of doing my upcoming European/UK tour dates, as I know I couldn’t deal with the travel required,” the Brit said.

After taking a 6-0 lead against the Rays and blowing it with Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Yankees came back to force extra innings before suffering a crushing loss.

The Rays walked it off for an 8-7 win in 10 innings in front of 32,142 in a playoff-like atmosphere at Tropicana Field.

Despite the teams being separated by nine games entering the series — with the Rays (28-7) atop the AL East and the Yankees (18-17) in last place, just as they finished the weekend — they played three one-run games. 

And yet dropping two of three, especially with how gut-wrenching Sunday’s finale was, felt like a brutal swing for the beaten-up Yankees.

“I feel like we could have walked away with three of these games and they probably feel the same way,” Anthony Rizzo said.

After the Yankees’ bullpen had already used Jimmy Cordero, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Michael King to get through the ninth inning — with Ian Hamilton and Ron Marinaccio unavailable — Albert Abreu came on for the bottom of the 10th and allowed a one-out single to Isaac Paredes to end it.