Miami Herald

Panthers clinch home-ice advantage in first round of playoffs with victory against Sabres

- BY DAVID WILSON Miami Herald Writer

they went from No. 8 seed to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final last year, the Florida Panthers know home-ice advantage and a high seed only mean so much in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they’re still happy to have the former locked up — and they’re embracing the chance to keep playing for the latter in the final week of the regular season.

The Panthers clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs Saturday with a 3-2, overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres, and now the top spot in the Atlantic Division will remain up for grabs into the final days of the regular season.

“If we get a chance to compete for something,” coach Paul Maurice said, “we’re going to compete for it.”

Florida (51-24-6) temporaril­y moved into first place in the Atlantic with its win, vaulting a point ahead of the Bruins before Boston dominated the Penguins in regulation later Saturday to regain the top spot in the division.

The Bruins have played one fewer game than Florida, but the Panthers hold the tiebreaker with more regulation wins, meaning they can still potentiall­y get the top seed in the division — and, with it, the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference — by winning their regular-season finale Tuesday.

Either way, Florida feels like it’s in a good spot for the looming Stanley Cup playoffs, even if the path to it, and through it, will be drasticall­y different than a year ago.

At this time last year, the Panthers went into the final week of the regular season fighting for their postseason lives, needing to win just to get into the Cup playoffs. Now, they’ve been able to spend most of the last few weeks ensuring they’ll be as ready as possible once the playoffs begin.

Winger Carter Verhaeghe and defenseman Aaron Ekblad have both missed almost all of April, and Florida isn’t rushing them back, instead waiting for Game 1 of the playoffs to bring them back. Defenseman Oliver EkmanLarss­on went out with a minor injury during the game Saturday and Florida didn’t push at all to bring him back. Health and form, and the balancing act beAfter tween the two, are the two priorities, even above the chance to win a division title.

Even though they needed overtime to beat the Sabres (38-37-6) on Saturday, the Panthers still did enough to feel good about they’re playing with the playoffs just a week away.

Florida outshot Buffalo, 42-39, and held the Sabres to just six shots in the third period, aided by a fiveminute power play. Even though they just barely eked out the win by scoring with 1:02 left in overtime, the Panthers won on a gorgeous goal by two of their stars, with center Aleksander Barkov winning a battle for a loose puck in the offensive zone while his teammates made a line change, then set up Sam Reinhart for his 55th goal of the season with a precision pass through a pair of defenders.

“We’re just trying to start the playoff mind-set early,” center Anton Lundell said.

The attitude was evident throughout, and has been for much of the final month of the regular season. Florida has given up just four goals in the last five games and All-Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s goals against average is down to 2.38 — second best in the NHL among goalies to play at least 50 games.

After the Panthers gave up two goals in the first 9:48, Bobrovsky stopped the final 25 shots he faced and got an assist from Sam Bennett late in the second period when the center dove across the goal mouth to sweep a puck off the line after Bobrovsky almost scored on himself.

“That was the key moment,” Bobrovsky said with a smile. “It’s the goalie’s happiest moment when you see that it’s out of the net.”

For summaries, complete standings, scores go to the eEdition at MiamiHeral­d.com.

x-Boston x-Florida x-Toronto x-Tampa Bay Detroit Buffalo Ottawa Montreal Metropolit­an

x-N.Y. Rangers x-Carolina

N.Y. Islanders Washington Philadelph­ia Pittsburgh New Jersey Columbus

y-Dallas x-Winnipeg x-Colorado x-Nashville St. Louis Minnesota Arizona Chicago Pacific

GP W LOT Pts GF GA

80 47 18 15 109 266 219 81 51 24 6 108 263 198 80 46 24 10 102 297 252 80 44 28 8 96 283 260 80 39 32 9 87 268 266 81 38 37 6 82 242 242 80 36 40 4 76 252 276 80 30 36 14 74 228 279 GP W L OT Pts GF GA

81 54 23 4 112 278 229 80 51 22 7 109 272 208 80 37 27 16 90 237 258 80 38 31 11 87 216 256 81 38 32 11 87 234 259 80 37 31 12 86 247 244 81 38 38 5 81 263 279 81 26 43 12 64 231 297

GP W LOT Pts GF GA

81 51 21 9 111 296 233 80 50 24 6 106 251 194 80 49 25 6 104 296 249 81 47 29 5 99 267 244 81 43 33 5 91 238 248 80 38 32 10 86 245 258 80 35 40 5 75 246 266 79 23 51 5 51 172 278 GP W LOT Pts GF GA

x-Vancouver 80 49 22 9 107 273 218 x-Edmonton 79 48 25 6 102 282 225 x-Los Angeles 80 43 26 11 97 250 208 x-Vegas 79 43 28 8 94 259 237 Seattle 80 33 34 13 79 210 229 Calgary 79 36 38 5 77 241 261 Anaheim 81 26 50 5 57 200 294 San Jose 80 19 52 9 47 178 317

x-clinched playoff spot; y-clinched division.

NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

SUNDAY

St. Louis 4, Seattle 1

Colorado at Vegas

Carolina at Chicago

Arizona at Calgary

Unlike last year, Florida does not need to be perfect right now. Still, the Panthers will once they get started in the playoffs next week and days like Saturday are just part of the bigger puzzle.

The win was nice because it still meant something for Florida as it tries to sort out its postseason positionin­g, but the way the Panthers are playing — and the ways they can still try

MONDAY

Montreal at Detroit, 7

N.Y. Islanders at New Jersey, 7 Nashville at Pittsburgh, 7

Buffalo at Tampa Bay, 7

Boston at Washington, 7

Ottawa at N.Y. Rangers, 7:30 Minnesota at Los Angeles, 9:30

San Jose at Edmonton, 9:30

TUESDAY

Toronto at Florida, 7:30

Ottawa at Boston, 7

Carolina at Columbus, 7

Detroit at Montreal, 7

Washington at Philadelph­ia, 7 Seattle at Winnipeg, 8

Chicago at Vegas, 10

Calgary at Vancouver, 10

SATURDAY

Florida 3, Buffalo 2 (OT)

N.Y. Rangers 3, N.Y. Islanders 2 (SO) Dallas 3, Seattle 1

Winnipeg 7, Colorado 0

Philadelph­ia 1, New Jersey 0 Washington 4, Tampa Bay 2

Ottawa 5, Montreal 4 (SO)

Detroit 5, Toronto 4 (OT)

Nashville 6, Columbus 4

Boston 6, Pittsburgh 4

Vancouver 3, Edmonton 1

Los Angeles 3, Anaheim 1

Minnesota 6, San Jose 2

Buffalo 2 0 0 0—2 Florida 2 0 0 1—3

First Period—1, Buffalo, Jost 3 (Dahlin, Jokiharju) 2:59 2, Florida, Lundell 13 (M.Tkachuk, Cousins) 5:02 3, Florida, Stenlund 11 (unassisted) 8:11 (sh) 4, Buffalo, Quinn 9 (Byram, Power) 9:48

(pp). Penalties—Cousins, Fla (tripping), 7:57; Krebs, Buf (tripping), 17:09.

Second Period—None. Penalties— Mikkola, Fla (interferen­ce), 16:54.

Third Period—None. Penalties—Clifton, Buf major (match penalty), 6:04; Tuch, Buf (high sticking), 19:25.

Overtime—5, Florida, Reinhart 55 (Barkov) 3:58. Penalties—None.

SOG—Buf 8-14-6-1—29. Fla 13-11-162—42. Power-play opp—Buffalo 1 of 2; Florida 0 of 3. Goalies—Buffalo Luukkonen 27-22-4 (42 shots-39 saves). Florida Bobrovsky 36-17-4 (29-27). A—19,319 (19,250). T—2:30. to get better in the next week — are what’s most important.

“The difference between this group and last year’s is these guys are a little bit more serious, a little more focused,” Maurice said. “They know what they’ve been through, they know what’s coming, they know how hard it’s going to be and the bench is a little quieter, just waiting for it to come.”

 ?? MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiheral­d.com ?? Center Sam Reinhart scored his 55th goal of the season to give the Panthers the overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise.
MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiheral­d.com Center Sam Reinhart scored his 55th goal of the season to give the Panthers the overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise.

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