Panthers scramble, tie series
Reinhart ties score late with goalie pulled; Verhaeghe nets winner
Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 Monday night, tying the first-round series.
Verhaeghe scored 4:57 into overtime to keep the NHL’S best regular-season team from getting pushed to the brink of elimination much earlier in the playoffs than expected. It’s a best-of-three series now with Game 5 Wednesday night at Florida.
The Panthers were just more than two minutes away from facing the prospect of getting knocked out at home. Then, with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Reinhart collected a loose puck after it bounced off Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway and beat Ilya Samsonov with 2:04 remaining in the third period.
Given the combination of nerves and playoff inexperience that contributed to Florida’s struggles in the series, Reinhart’s goal may turn out to be the one that saved its season.
Before that point, the Panthers outshot the Capitals by a wide margin, but again were unable to finish. They went 0-for-4 on the power play to make it 0-for-13 in the series and couldn’t put the puck in the net at 5-on-5.
Islanders: Lou Lamoriello, the Islanders’ president and general manager, fired herad coach Barry Trotz as coach Monday after the team failed to make the playoffs, saying it was time for a “new voice.” “It would be a tremendous understatement to say that this wasn’t an easy decision to make,” Lamoriello said on a conference call with reporters. “This is a business decision as far as hockey and winning.” Lamoriello has made 21 coaching changes since he was named general manager of the New Jersey Devils in 1987 and has not been shy about exchanging one big-name coach for another. He would not say what his plans were, but in explaining the surprising move, he made it clear he wanted more out of the current squad.
Sharks: San Jose has locked up two of its potential free agents early in the offseason, agreeing to two-year deals with forward Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Jaycob Megna.