CATS’ BEST COMEBACK YET
Panthers respond to challenge with rally
Florida Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette had called out his team after Saturday’s 6-1 loss at Washington. Blasted his players for being “out-competed” and “out-willed” by the Capitals. He said his Panthers were “not working hard enough.”
It was a remarkable and, yes, desperate challenge to a No. 1 seeded team down 2-1 in this first-round NHL playoff series and, by their own admission, playing nervous.
“We definitely want to show up for him,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said before Monday’s Game 4, back in D.C. “Show up for ourselves.”
The mantra coming in was the phrase “battle level.” It needed to spike.
“Finding our intensity,” as Ekblad put it. “Get in the fire of the fight.”
“We’ve answered the bell all year,” said Brunette.
“We’ve proved all year we can bounce back,” said forward Anthony Duclair.
Now was the time.
Perhaps to save a season, the best in franchise history.
They did it. Nothing less.
The Washington Capitals were skating to an apparent 2-1 win and commanding 3-1 series lead when Brunette pulled goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with 3:08 left in regulation, leaving an empty net but
The Panthers were all but doomed. There were less three minutes separating them from a near-insurmountable series deficit and, with no goaltender in their net and an extra skater on the ice, they were one shot away from overtime or one away from an almost-certain Game 4 loss to
The Panthers scored with the goalie pulled in the final three minutes to force overtime, then Carter Verhaeghe delivered a win in a pivotal Game 4 in Washington.
the Washington Capitals.
A shot from Garnet Hathaway from his own zone went just wide of the open goal. It would have effectively crushed the Panthers both in the game and, maybe, this first-round series in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Instead, Florida had life
again and Sam Reinhart used it. With 2:04 left in regulation, the forward scored from the slot, corralling a bouncing puck and flicking it past Ilya Samsonov to force overtime. With 15:03 left in the first sudden-death overtime period, forward Carter Verhaeghe sniped a shot over the left
shoulder of Ilya Samsonov. The Panthers beat the Capitals, 3-2, at Capital One Arena in Washington.
They were inches away from the brink of disaster. Now they’re somehow back in control of the first-round series, tied 2-2 as they head back to Sunrise for Game 5 on Wednesday and they’re playing as well as they have at any
giving Florida a 6-to-5 advantage in skaters.
Brunette looked smart a minute later when, on assists from stars Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart netted the tying goal to mute the home crowd and force overtime.
It forced overtime.
That was when, 4:57 in, Carter Verhaeghe scored for a 3-2 Panthers’ OT win and a 2-2 series headed back to South Florida.
Washington had struck first Monday mid-first period on T.J. Oshie’s goal, but Florida tied it six minutes later in a 4-on-4 situation after two sendoffs. Aaron Ekblad on a 2-on-1 break found Verhaeghe in close for the golden deposit.
The apparent winning goal came with 10:29 left on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s shot after the Panthers’
Sam Bennett had taken a high hit in the neutral zone and lost possession.
Then came the goalie pull and Reinhart’s shot.
Then came Verhaeghe’s OT winner.
This game would not have been about effort had it been lost. It would not have been about want. It would have been the more playoff-experienced Capitals squad, outshot almost 2-1, taking advantage of chances in a way Florida did not.
The Panthers were 0-for-4 on power play opportunities and are now an unfathomable 0-for-13 in this series. Washington has converted five of 17 power plays.
Still, late in regulation and then in OT, Florida marshaled everything it had.
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The Stanley Cupdreaming Panthers, had they been down 3-1, faced flaming out in the first
round after the best regular season in hockey, qualifying dubiously as one of the biggest disappointments in NHL postseason history.
They would have needed to win three games in a row and advance, survive, in a comeback for the ages — one that underlines all of the fight and resolve that got them this far.
Now it’s 2-2 entering Game 5 Wednesday in the Sunrise rink.
The Panthers were 34-7
at home in the regular season, best in the league.
They had 10 winning streaks of at least three games.
Now they need to win two of the next three to advance.
That’s all. It’s a lot. But not what it could have been before Monday’s late rally changed everything.